Konoha High
by THA musIc GuY
Summary: AU. Sakura Haruno is the most popular girl at Konoha High, and many boys consistently chase her, only to be turned down; for the emerald-eyed beauty has eyes for only one boy; Sasuke Uchiha. This 'was' her story, until a certain blonde haired boy transferred to Konoha, and changed the entire course of her school-life. A Senior Year Story. Naruto x Sakura, and other pairings.
1. The Blonde Haired Wonder Boy

**A/N: Deciding to take on the task of writing two stories at the same time, I thought of writing a High School story. I'm satisfied with the result, and I hope that you guys will be too! **

**Well, I guess I should begin with the story right? **

**So here it is, the first chapter of Konoha High!**

* * *

**Ch. 1- The Blonde-Haired Wonder-Boy**

* * *

Haruno. Sakura Haruno.

The mention of her name stirred up many images in the minds of the students of Konoha High. The pink-haired goddess, the winner of the inter-school fashion-fests, the captain of the cheer-leading team, and the 'Glamorous Topper', being some of the most common.

Still, there were many more characteristics attributed to her regarding her beauty, and, well... her temper.

It was true. Sakura Haruno's temper was scary. Scary enough to make a few people; including some jocks, call her the 'Beautiful-Devil'.

However, there were still others; her more closer friends, to whom Sakura was kind, caring, and motherly. These 'Closer' friends of hers were undoubtedly small in number, but still, it didn't go without saying that they were the only ones who truly saw 'Miss-Popular' for who she really was.

The rest, just sort of ogled at her figure.

Anyhow, there were many things which one thought of, when the name of the pinkette was mentioned, but never in hell did they think of a sloppily dressed girl, sprinting towards school, angry with herself, and very, _very_ late.

Unfortunately for them, they were soon to think the unthinkable.

* * *

Uzumaki.

Well, this wasn't any ordinary boy. And it wasn't any ordinary story that was attached with him either.

Talks of the 'Boy-Wonder' were all around town. The former outcast, who'd surprisingly saved his school from losing at almost _everything_ other than academic-matters, and had become extremely popular in every single school in town, was _definitely_ not someone to look casually at.

Armed with a cheery and sunny personality, favorable luck, a good friend to back him up, and an unnervingly awesome amount of skill at almost everything non-academic, this boy was nothing less to being godly.

Not to mention, he _looked_ nothing less than a God.

He was Naruto.

Now, contrary to the image of Haruno, Uzumaki was always pictured to be one who'd lazily walk his way up to school, yawn ignorantly in front of the school-gates, and then walk into his school smirking, softly muttering 'Daddy's home' as he did so.

Which sort of explained why said boy was, even though inevitably late, casually strolling towards school, cell-phone turned on.

* * *

"Yeah, so I sorta left the refrigerator door open on my way out, don't know what's gonna happen though, ya'know..."

"..."

"What?"

"You called me to talk about the refrigerator door!"

"Jeez, what's with the yellin'?"

The blonde boy rubbed his ear in annoyance. He _had_ to talk about _something_. Otherwise, it would be a long and lonely walk to school! Something that he didn't doubt, would be uncool.

Yawning lazily, the boy pressed his cell-phone against his ear once again. He sleepily rubbed off a little bit of water which had escaped his eyes. He'd been watching a horror flick the night before, and that had left him with the inglorious dilemma of being unable to sleep.

"So where _are _you anyway?"

"Half-way to school?"

He felt the boy on the other end flinch.

"Naruto Uzumaki... _are you fuckin'_ kiddin'_ me!"_

"Shut up Teme, I had to crawl outta bed, and I know its no fuckin' nuisance for you, to watch a ghost-film, you basically laze your way into your half-assed bed and immediately become an unconscious bastard, but that's not the case with me, ya hag!"

"Dobe, once you get here, you're dead."

"Right, real creepy murder threat you got goin' there!"

"..."

Naruto Uzumaki brought his cell phone in front of his mouth, and, with a comical-looking-face, yelled into it.

"THE FUCK WITH YOU KEEPIN' SHUT, YA BASTARD!"

"LIKE HELL YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME DO OTHERWISE!"

Naruto grinned evilly at his cell phone, and started in an eerily calm voice, just as he took the next corner, and walked into the lane which lead to his new school.

"Oh, you'll see. You'll see..."

"Pfft, yeah right!"

"Are you under_esti_-"

_Crash!_

_Dump!_

"Ow!"

"Ouc-"

Naruto suddenly stopped talking, and looked up at the girl he'd just bumped into.

She had pink hair, and a body which looked a little smaller than his own. Her figure was undoubtedly amazing, looking like that of a model. Her tummy was, for all he could think, flat, and her breasts were moderate. Her legs were shiny, and _definitely,_ very sexy.

But that wasn't what got to him the most.

It was her face. Her eyes were tightly shut, and she was biting her lips. And there was also a hand which she was pressing against her head. But the fact still remained.

This girl was beautiful.

"Watch where you're going!" she half-yelled, rubbing her head with her left hand. Shaking her head, as she slowly recovered from the impact of their collision, the girl finally opened her eyes and gave Naruto a look-up. Naruto's brain froze.

Her eyes were the dreamiest shade of emerald.

"Uh... I'm sorry..."

Unable to formulate proper sentences, he just looked up at the girl who was presently bearing down on him. She huffed, and turned away, with a slight pout on her face. She then looked at Naruto through the corner of her eyes.

"Don't let it happen again..."

Naruto nodded.

The girl looked like she was about to give Naruto a proper check-out, when...

"HOLY SHIT!"

Her eyes widened and her jaw slackened.

"What? ! What happened? !"

Naruto watched from the ground, as the girl cast a mortified glance at the tall building behind her, just as the sound of a school-bell was heard.

"I'm _late!_" screamed the girl, as she quickly hurried off in the direction of the school.

Naruto stared after her, and kept looking, even when she disappeared from view.

_Pink._

Hmm, funny how one girl could make you get used to something you've scorned for the whole of your life.

* * *

"What's up girlfriend?"

Sakura scowled. She knew that voice only too well, and it didn't help that she was hearing it right after coming late to school, and being subjected to the inhuman wrath of her retarded master; the principal. Slowly turning around to look at the girl coming up to her, she performed the Speak-And-You-Die glare with her eyes.

But the girl was unfazed.

"Its like, _so_ unusual for _you_ to come late!"

The girl slapped Sakura's back. The latter's eyes got newly ignited flames burning within them.

"Ino! Try anything weird, and I'm so gonna kill you!"

"Yeah right bitch, I'd slap the crap outta you before that."

Sakura glared at her.

"...Or not..."

The pinkette smiled. The world seemed much brighter when people agreed with her.

Turning on her heels, Sakura started to walk towards her first class of the day; Gym. She moved a bit fast, mostly to get away from the irritation her best friend would make her feel right now, but a little because she was actually excited about gym as well.

It was one of the classes she shared with _him_. 'Him' being the King of Konoha High.

_Sasuke Uchiha._

She unconsciously got sucked into a daydream in which Sasuke, mounted on a horse, and with a bouquet in his hands, came riding towards her, and held out the flowers to her, asking her if she wanted to go out. _  
_

A large waterfall of drool spouted from her mouth, causing Ino to look at her curiously.

She slapped her best friend on her back.

"_Hey!_ What the hell was _that_ for!" screamed Sakura, angrily rubbing her back. She pouted at the blonde beside her, while the latter looked at her in a bored fashion.

"Sasuke? Still?"

Sakura huffed, and looked away.

"Always!"

Ino grunted and turned away from her friend.

"Tell me that after you see the _newbie_."

Intrigued, the emerald-eyed-beauty looked at her friend, and raised her eyebrows in question.

"Newbie?"

Ino grinned.

"You'll see."

And with that, the blonde walked away, leaving Sakura staring confusedly after her.

* * *

"Dobe."

The students could feel the deathly-aura which surrounded the Uchiha as he said the words, but that wasn't what surprised them. In fact, the deathly-aura was part and parcel of being an Uchiha, as the brother of the boy in question had had, albeit in a lot more dilute measure, the same sort of essence. However, the fact that this _Uchiha_ was _actually addressing someone_, blew the mind of every student in the hallway.

Of course, they were all just a bit too scared to point it out.

"Tem-he!"

They looked at the blonde idiot, who just waltzed his way over to the King of Konoha, and slapped said boy on the back. Their jaws collectively dropped to the floor. They looked on, as the Uchiha glared at the boy, but said nothing, merely trying to kill the boy with the daggers his eyes had transformed into.

However, it all proved useless. The new 'Blonde-Wonder' just smiled slyly at the black-haired God, made a weird pointing-gesture towards the Uchiha, and blinked.

"Waddup?"

A few of the students clutched their chests and fell to the floor, gasping for sweet air.

"_Naruto," _said the Uchiha suggestively, looking murderously at the hand the boy he was talking about had placed on his shoulder. He then looked up at the 'Dobe' to find him looking at him in a completely obnoxious manner. Flames ignited inside his eyes.

A few minutes previously, Sasuke Uchiha had been leaning against the wall beside the first window of the second-floor-corridor, engaging in his usual activity; that is, brooding. He had his eyes closed, and his hands tucked into his pants' pockets. His facial expression was calm, and so was his overall demeanor, which just showcased his exquisiteness, because, at that very moment itself, there were a dozen girls on the other end of the corridor, feverishly trying to gather up the confidence they'd require to give the 'letters of undying love' they'd written for the Uchiha, to said boy.

It was just another day at Konoha.

Or at least it had been until then.

"Sasuke!"

Every single head in the corridor turned to look at the creep who'd said _that name _in a manner so casual. However, the person their eyes yielded them, was _certainly_ not a 'creep'.

A fairly tall boy, clad in an orange shirt and black pant, complete with a black jacket, made his way towards Sasuke, as the latter stared at him in wonder. Orange was not a color one would usually think would suit someone, but the amount of drool which had erupted from the mouth of the each of the girls who were in the possession of an 'undying love' for Sasuke, was enough proof to confirm that this notion was false. The boy had blonde hair which the sun's rays playfully fell upon, and slightly tanned skin. His grin was infectious, as was noted by most of the students present in the corridor, and so were his facial features.

And then there was his pair of eyes. An infinite shade of cerulean played inside them, making them look almost supernatural.

'_Hot_' was not exactly what this boy was.

He was absolutely _gorgeous!_ Almost at par with Sasuke Uchiha himself!

The boy walked up to the Uchiha, not taking the stares of the rest of the students in the hallway into account, just as said Uchiha muttered the word 'Dobe', and slapped the boy on his back, bringing us back to the present.

Naruto Uzumaki straightened up and threw his friend a lopsided grin.

"What's with the anger?"

A few more girls collapsed to the floor.

Sasuke scowled at the blonde.

"You _hung_ _up _on me!" said he, half-yelling. His frowned deepened, as he looked at the boy with narrowed-eyes, "And who exactly did you crash into?"

Naruto was taken aback, but he recovered from his shock almost instantaneously, and grinned at the Uchiha yet again.

"It was this pink haired girl, ya' know, real pretty and all, studies here, and... well, yeah."

The jaws of few of the guys in the corridor dropped even more, while some more students fell to the floor. The boy had _crashed into Sakura Haruno! Physical contact with the school's Queen! Oh, the joy the boy must have felt_!

"You met that bitch? Ah well."

Naruto raised his eyebrows at his friend.

Sasuke folded his arms, "You'll see."

Chuckling softly, Naruto looked around him, and took in his surroundings. An inexplicable grin adorned his face. Upon becoming aware of the Uchiha's curious eyes on him, Naruto finally looked back at him, and smiled.

"Its good to be here."

Sasuke's trademark 'hn' was his answer to this, albeit mixed with the slightest hint of a congratulatory-laugh.

Naruto smiled wider. Beginning to turn around on his heels, the blonde boy addressed the Uchiha again.

"So how's this schoo- Holy crap! Why the fuck is everyone _sleeping_!"

* * *

The Konohan café was alive and abuzz with the voices of the students who occupied the place. Balls were passed around the tables, as was food. Boys and girls alike constantly kept changing their tables, to go and catch up on their different friend-groups. Differently pitched voices were heard from all the portions of the café, giving it the distinctiveness of being the break-haunt of the 'Konohans'.

"Say Neji, what's with all this talk about the new kid?"

The speaker of these words, a kid with wild hair and red colored tattoo marks on his face, looked curiously at a boy with long hair and unearthly white eyes. He chewed off a bit of his Hot-Dog, and looked curiously at the person he was referring to with wide puppy-dog eyes.

Because, even though Kiba Inuzuka was an extremely vital player in the football team, he still had a knack for gossip.

The person he was referring to, looked up at him in an annoyed fashion, or at least, in whatever thing he thought was 'annoyance'. His white colored eyes narrowed irately at the dog-freak, or in whatever way he thought was 'irate', and his wheatish lips bent down to form a frown, or whatever he thought was a 'frown'.

Yeah, it was a sad truth, but it was still that; the truth. Neji Hyuuga was stoic.

Shaking his head in irritation (You get the point), the boy bent down again and started to slurp in his noodles again. Inuzuka looked at him in annoyance, and huffed. Just when said boy was about to repeat his question, the white-eyed-karate-master answered.

"They say Naruto's come to school."

Kiba's eyes widened.

"Uzumaki? _Here!"__  
_

Being the stoic hotshot he was, Neji Hyuuga couldn't conjure up smiles even if his life. But the small grin in his face was too in-place to be missed.

"Yes."

"HOLY SHIT!"

Every single head in the café turned towards the Inuzuka. Neji let out an irritated groan, and gave the dog-freak the 'What-have-you-done' glare. Said boy sheepishly grinned, and scratched the back of his head, and looked around him, smirking awkwardly at all the people who were staring at him.

Everyone chuckled and went back to doing whatever they were doing, shaking their heads at the Inuzuka. It was well known around campus that Kiba Inuzuka was one wild jock.

"But seriously, _he's here?_ That's big!" said Kiba, throwing his hands up to emphasize on his point. He looked excitedly at Neji, as the latter finally finished his lunch, cleaned his lips with a napkin, and looked up at him to _actually_ start the conversation.

"It _is _big news, which is why many people are still unaware of his coming here," Neji looked towards the table on his left-hand side, where a few girls were chatting away, and nodded suggestively, "Although they seem to have had a run-in with Naruto, this morning."

Kiba looked at the girls and his eyes widened. He pointed at them and his jaw dropped.

"T-The cheerleaders?"

Neji nodded.

"Holy crap! That bastard's the devil, he's already started attracting the chics?" Kiba threw his arms up into the air, "I wish it was all like the old times again."

Neji looked at him, annoyed [You get it].

"I don't," he said, his voice spiteful.

Kiba looked startled.

"Huh?"

Neji's eyebrows bent down, and for the first time in a _long_ while, he looked like he was angry.

"Naruto has had to go through a _lot_ to become what he is today, I just don't want him to go through all that again."

Neji's words finally struck his Footballer-friend, as the latter's eyes darkened wistfully. Said boy slowly brought his hands to the table, and propped his face onto them. His eyes darkened further as memories of an outcast slowly floated into his mind. It had all happened a long time ago, but the thoughts still stung him. Believing the crap their elder-brothers had fed them, about the kid being a thief and a cheat, the entire student-body of Konoha-Elementary had gone against that outcast.

But even then, Naruto Uzumaki had had a tremendously strong resolve. He'd fought through the bad-mouthing he had been subjected to, and remained strong. The only thing he'd craved for back then had been attention, and to gain said thing, the boy had pulled pranks, most of them being downright humorous. But even then, he'd been treated like scum, and the knowledge of having had had quite a similar attitude towards the boy himself, Kiba felt extremely depressed.

After elementary school was over, the boy hadn't applied for Konoha's Junior High School, but just disappeared. He'd not been that popular, so his disappearance had not been that much of a problem for anyone. It had stayed that way for about five years, after which, in an extremely anticipated match of basketball, Uzumaki had made his second-entry. He was representing one of the schools in the city, which had almost _no_ reputation of being good at sports; Uzushio High, and yet...

He'd played fantastically in that match, practically taking it all into his own hands, and leading his team to victory. After that, it had been one win after another for the school, until they reached the finals last year, where they'd played Akatsuki High, whose's Basketball team; Taka, had been lead by none other than the current God of Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha himself; someone who's said to have a huge back-story with Naruto Uzumaki.

The match had been fierce, as, by the third-quarter, Taka had been leading by 14 points, making all hope of that the Uzushio team had of winning seem dead, when suddenly, the Uzushio Team's coaches, Killer B and Jiraya, had called a small Time-Out, to give his team some pep-talk. He'd specifically told Naruto something that no one else knew. But that had definitely boosted the kid's morale, for after that, the Uzushio Team had managed 10 points by the end of the third-quarter. In the fourth quarter, the match became so intense that it had many students in the bleachers nearly fainting[**You ****understand**].

The match had, after that, basically fallen upon the efforts of two players; Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki. The game went on for fifteen more minutes, but in the end, it was the Uzushio Team that won, due the valiant efforts of Naruto, by a six point difference.

In the little speech Naruto gave after the game, he'd cited Sasuke as his closest friend, and had said that he'd love to play in the same team as his someday. They had been said to have reached an off-stage agreement in which they would give their Senior Year from the same school. Sasuke had then transferred to Konoha High, while Naruto had gone about making his school proud, and building up quite a name for himself in almost _ every_ field.

And then, when the previous academic year had finally been over, he'd left Uzushio High, leaving his 'disciple' Konohamaru, a student who'd transferred there from Konoha Junior High, to take his place. Needless to say, the boy had been doing a splendid job at keeping his master's reputation intact.

Now, Uzumaki Naruto had transferred to the supposedly 'Best School in Town after Uzushio'; Konoha High.

And, needless to say, it had generated quite a lot of hype.

"I guess that idiot actually _has_ gone through a lot, eh?" said Kiba, staring fixedly at the table in front of him.

"That's an understatement."

Kiba looked up and found Neji staring at the ceiling with the slightest hint of reverence in his eyes.

He grinned.

Uzumaki deserved that.

* * *

Sakura Haruno looked around her in confusion. No one was looking at her. WHY wasn't anybody looking at her? Usually, on a usual day, at the usual Konoha, usual male students, gave her the usual stares, which usually meant her being subjected to the usual sexual process in the usual student's mind. However, nothing was 'usual' today, as _none _of the students in the café was looking at her; much preferring to look at the door instead.

And to top it all off, her 'Prince-Charming' was missing!

Talk about suck-y days.

Sakura groaned.

"What's up with everyone anyway?" said she, turning to look at her three best friends; Ino, Tenten, and Hinata, only to find that the three of them too were staring at the door in extreme excitement. A nerve in Sakura's forehead twitched.

"BITCHES!"

"Wuaaah!"

All the three girls turned to look at the pink-haired-demon, instinctively bringing their arms up to guard them, even though they knew that all attempts at protection would be ultimately proved futile.

"What's up with everyone?" said Sakura, her voice suddenly calming down. She pouted and looked over to the doorway to the café.

The three girls who were sitting at her table, slowly lowered their arms, while their eyes widened.

"You don't know?" piped in Tenten, looking at her curiously.

Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Don't know what?"

She looked around the table in confusion.

All the three girls broke into small fits of chuckling, but stopped abruptly upon seeing their demonic friend's nerves twitch.

"H-He's joined this school," said Ino, cautiously edging away from the pinkette.

Sakura looked at her curiously.

"Who?"

"Him, ya 'know, Nar-"

A collectively intake of breath was heard throughout the canteen, and the four girls immediately stopped talking to have a look at what was going on. They looked at the door, and three of them immediately had their breaths hitch, on the sight of the entrance of two boys.

But there was one, who was the devil, the Queen, and the most beautiful girl among the four Queens of Konoha; Sakura Haruno, who just pointed at one of the boys; the blonde one, and let out a short muffled gasp.

Ino looked at the girl.

"What's wrong?"

Sakura slowly turned towards her.

"I bumped into blondie right there, in the morning, and then totally ditched him!"

"Oh so you bumped into Na-"

Ino eyes widened, and suddenly, her jaw crashed down. Her breathing nearly stopped, leading to her placing a hand on her chest. Sakura, unfazed my the drama, looked on boredly at the girl while the latter slowly recovered from the shock.

"You," said Ino, her eyes still wide, and her voice a tad bit shaky,"Bumped... into _him?_ You _have _to tell me what it felt like."

Now, Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Tenten, were the four Queens of Konoha High. One would think that the 'normal' cheerleaders would be the said personalities, but that wasn't the case with Konoha; because these weren't any ordinary girls. They were absolute and perfect beauties; and the leaders of said school's cheerleading team.

In terms of prettiness, Sakura stood first among the four, but even then, she was the one to receive the least number of askings-out among the 'Guild'. Perhaps it was so, because she was so utterly gorgeous, and her mannerisms so elite, that most considered it unsafe to even go up to her and say 'hi'.

Even so, the fact was that none of the goddesses ever went for a boy(Apart from a certain black haired prodigy, whom a certain pink-haired 'Queen' had eyes for). Boys went for them. And therefore, seeing that look of smite on Ino's face, made Sakura ever so confused.

"Why?" she asked, looking at Ino with a curious expression, "Who is _he_? And look who he's walking with!" her eyes grew large, and she suddenly felt like hyperventilating, as she caught sight of the boy who was walking with the blonde guy.

_Sasuke Uchiha._

"Who the hell _is_ he?"

Ino's eyes widened further, and she gasped.

"You don't know?"

"No..."

Ino took in a deep breath, valiantly attempting to calm herself. When she was finally done with that, she looked back at her pink-haired friend, who was looking back at her with scrunched eyebrows.

Ino closed her eyes once, and took in a deep breath. When she finally opened her eyes again, she saw that Sakura's expression was something that even 'excitement' couldn't bind.

"He's Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."

Sakura's heart missed a beat.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki strolled into the café casually, paying no heed to the stares that followed him. He just carried on with the conversation he was having with the boy beside him.

"So you're gonna buy a new radiator for the apartment?" asked Naruto, looking at his friend in confusion.

Sasuke shrugged.

"But why? The place is a goddamn furnace as it is!" protested the blonde, throwing his arms about in exasperation, "If anything, you should buy an Air-Conditioner!"

Sasuke turned to look at him.

"Winter's coming."

Naruto's jaw slackened, "Winter is three freakin' months awa-"

Sasuke brought a hand in front of his friend's mouth to silence the latter. He eyed said boy through the corner of his eyes.

"Later. Lets find a table for now."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the boy, and looked away.

"You're impossible."

But the idea of food did seem to be a little too inviting.

Looking around the café, a certain person, who, incidentally, was staring at him, with wide eyes, caught his eye.

Naruto pointed at her and mouthed 'You!', as his eyes slowly widened, and his lips bent into a smile.

The girl's face reddened, and she looked away. Then, after a few moments, and a little bit of grumbling with the girls beside her, the girl hesitantly turned back to him, and mouthed 'Wanna sit here?'.

Naruto's eyes widened, and his heart basically jumped. A girl as pretty as that was asking him to come and sit beside her, how could he refuse that!

'Sure', he mouthed, and suddenly caught hold of the arm of a Suspicious-Sasuke.

"Dobe, what are yo-"

"No time to explain, lets go!"

"Wait wha-!"

He had no chance of completing his sentence, because just the next moment, Naruto yanked him towards the table, on which the girl was sitting.

* * *

"So, you guys, like, know each other?" asked Sakura, cautiously looking at the blonde as he smirked at his friend.

Sasuke let off a small 'Hn', and looked away.

"Sorta," said Naruto, with an undercurrent of laughter in his voice, as he turned to look at the pink-haired beauty again, "We kinda live together."

Every girl in the table turned their heads to look at the boys, and for the first time in their lives they witnessed something...

..._Sasuke Uchiha was blushing!_

"Dobe..."

The whisper was barely audible, but the group sitting around the table still caught up on it. Muffled chuckles were heard, until Naruto finally made his comment.

"What's that for, Teme? You in gay-love with me, or what?"

Everyone around the table, with the exception of Sasuke, who just shot an angry glare at Naruto, burst laughing.

Sakura, who'd been laughing to near-tears, gave Naruto a much more thorough check-out this time. When her laughter finally subsided, her lips bent into a small smile, and she propped her head on her arm, and tilted her head slowly as she saw the blonde-haired-wonder-boy laugh. Who'd have thought that one boy would enable her to socialize with even the most stoic guy in the campus?

But looking at the blue-eyed guy laugh, she just couldn't help but smile.

Naruto Uzumaki.

What an interesting boy.

* * *

**SO! HOW WAS THAT! LIKE IT? HATE IT? PLEEEEEASE REVIEW! THE MORE THE REVIEWS, THE FASTER I UPDATE!**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**BY THE WAY, THE REVIEW BUTTON'S ON THE NEXT LINE. BUH BYE!**


	2. Ino and Shikamaru

**Author's Note : Thankee for your reviews, and for adding this story to your favorite and alert lists. It meant a lot. So, here are the shout-outs! **

** tman0066- :D Thankee for the review dude! And here's the next chapter.**

** STR8UP 187- Thankee! Here's another chapter for you to rate. :)**

** chelsearuls- Thankee! And you support Chelsea? High-Five brother!**

** Claire Voiyant - And you still read my story? That's motivational! Thankee! And I'll be looking forward to your review!**

** Minato 0077- :D Thankee mate! Here's your update!**

** NarutoLuver896: Thankee! Here! Here! Here!**

** charles cdv- I'm happy to have pleased ya!**

** dbzgtfan2004- Thankee! Here's chapter two! And yeah, Naruto and Sakura forever!**

** PonyHunter11876- Thankee! Well, the wait's over I guess. Trolol. :D**

** Lily- Thankee sis! Here's the chapter! :)**

** Jack Dunn- Thankee for the erstwhile compliment. ;D**

** Billyjoe Boy- I'd be happy to help! And Thankee! :D**

** HitsuxHina54KidxLiz- Thankee, but, err, sorry to disappoint, I sort of have this whole thing planned up, and er, ShikaIno's kind of a necessary plot-element. :\ Sorry. Hope you'll still read this though. :)  
**

** NaruSaku4346- :D Thankee! And here's your chapter!**

** alice- Thankee! :) Here!**

* * *

Sakura turned around in her bed in an irate fashion, and softly pressed her cell-phone to her ear, halfheartedly listening to the monologue that the person on the other end of the line was performing.

Ino Yamanaka had a crush? Heh, please. The world needs to be in existence for a few more days.

However, the fact that she'd been going on about the guy for twelve long minutes, had Sakura thinking otherwise.

Still, it was half past one in the night, and needless to say, Sakura was _very_ tired. The fact that she'd have to wake up early in the morning the next day just added to her already mounting woes. Why did she have school tomorrow? And how in the name of Kami was Ino speaking for so long!

Finally deciding to put an end to the madness, Sakura voiced her thoughts.

"Pig, loosen down, we've got school tomorrow, and if you keep that crap up, I'm not sure if I'll be able to live much longer."

The blonde concerned, on the other end, seemed to be offended. Indignantly making a soft 'huffing' sound, the girl retorted.

"As if! I totally saw you checking out the two hotties who were sitting at our table today!" Ino's voice was as saucy as that of an experienced stripper, "So where's the nick if I happen to fall for someone?"

Sakura reddened as the implication her friend had made sunk into her head.

"I was not! Sasuke, I can understand, but Naruto? Why'd I be checking him out?"

Sakura almost felt Ino raise an eyebrow on the other end.

"Why wouldn't you?"

Opening her mouth to give her a list, Sakura suddenly stopped. Her eyes widened.

"Well..."

"There aren't many faults with him, are there?"

The emerald-eyed girl gulped.

"Anyway," continued her friend, "Shikamaru's such a sexy _beast!_"

Forgetting all thoughts of a certain blonde haired idiot, who she _wasn't even a proper friend of_, Sakura suddenly felt an intense desire to puke.

"You have a crush on an actual topper? Heh, please, your pathetic-ness disgusts me."

An ignorant sound came up from the other end.

"And why would that be? Shikamaru's hot! Why'd ya say that I don't _really_ like him?"

"'Cause he's got money, and bitches like you run after dough."

A short silence transpired.

"That isn't true."

Sakura raised her eyebrows, while turning to the right, phone still pressed against her ear.

"Is it now?"

"Yes. Don't say stuff like that when you don't know things, Sakura."

Weirdly, the words caught up with the pinkette. What _had_ happened between the two? Sakura's eyebrows scrunched as she attempted to concentrate.

Well, the _did _always hung out a lot, which sort of creeped out all the jocks in the school. But the truth was inevitable, Shikamaru Nara was one cool bastard. One would usually think that 'nerds'; as they called them, were boring, but this was no 'nerd'. The boy basically didn't study. At all. But even then, when the exams came, he came in the top three in every subject!

To add to it all, his laziness was, in a weird sense, found to be particularly enthralling by the ladies.

Sakura smirked. Many of them would be having a mini heart attack when they found out that Ino Yamanaka had a thing for the guy.

But for the time being, she had to let her blonde-haired-dunce of a friend get on with her love life.

"Sorry."

"Thanks."

* * *

"Bastard! You _actually_ bought the radiator? What do you wanna do! Have my dick roasted, so that you can eat it for dinner?"

Sasuke Uchiha scowled at the blonde.

Said blonde pointed at him, shaking his head as he did so.

"Oh no way in hell am I gonna fall for _that_ crap again! Don't give me those looks you creep!"

Sasuke merely 'hn'ed, and looked away. Naruto scrunched his eyebrows, and, muttering an incomprehensible sound, which indicated his extreme agitation, narrowed his eyes, sticking his middle finger out at his black-haired friend.

Said friend stuck his tongue out [**Yeah, ****weird**] while presenting the boy with quite the same gesture.

"Yeah right! Your finger's small, so your insult doesn't count!"

Sasuke looked offended.

"The fuck's that supposed to mean, you Dobe?"

"You have a puny fuck-finger."

Naruto grinned. _Finally_, the asshole was affected. That'd taken some work!

"Piss off!" screamed the black-haired prodigy, huffing.

Naruto's grin merely grew wider.

"Gladly."

Winking saucily at the fuming Uchiha, he hop-walked his way to his room's door, and, after briefly smacking his ass, in a successfully planned attempt at pissing off his red-eyed friend even more, skipped into the place ahead.

* * *

"How troublesome."

Chouji, Neji, Kiba, Shino, and Lee, let out a collective sigh, as they looked up at their friend-in-distress, while the latter engaged in the act of star-gazing his night away.

Shikamaru Nara had already confessed of his infatuation with Ino Yamanaka about nineteen times that day, and it was certainly unhelpful for four seventeen-year-old boys, all of whom had had wild dreams about said girl, to console the lovelorn idiot.

It had started about two months ago, when, during the assignment of the final projects of their eleventh Grade, the Nara had been paired with the blonde in question. In the beginning, both of them were extremely unhappy with the arrangement, and remarks in the lines of "Lazy Nerdass", and "Demented Bimbo", were not infrequent in being exchanged.

However, as time passed, and the two had sessions of project-making [One can only wonder] in each others' houses together, they slowly started to warm up to each other. "Lazy Nerdass" became "Cool Creep", while "Demented Bimbo" became "Funny Chick", and their project went on smoother than most!

Then, upon the inception of their Senior Year, things started to go a little out-of-hand, and, like what happened in those creepy Prom flicks, everybody, other than the two concerned, were able to understand the things going on between said couple. Ino would get angered whenever she found a girl drooling about Shikamaru behind his back, and would raise small-scale tantrums about that girl, while Shikamaru would simply whine about the stresses of infatuation.

Even then, things were still tolerable when it came down to the two, until recently, when, well... they started doing everything but dating.

They'd occasionally have lunch, and even dinner, together. They'd go to watch baseball matches together. They'd watch films together. They'd invite each other over when their parents were away. And they'd even watch romance-assed movies together.

Yet, the two idiots wouldn't believe that the other was in love with them. And that was, in a general sense, extremely pissing off for their friends.

Today, Shikamaru had called his five best friends over for a much postponed get-together, while his parents were off on a business trip to Kumo High, them being Konoha's Relations' managers. And, throughout the day, the boy had whined about the blonde haired girl, claiming that she didn't like him.

Even now, when the group was on Shikamaru's house's roof, the boy didn't stop. He had already whined twice on the rooftop, and was now dangerously close to doing it for the third time that day.

Thus, his friends decided to help him out.

"She likes you, you brain-dead pimp! And if you weren't asexual, you'd go and ask her out first thing tomorrow!"

Kiba's face bore an expression of dilute anger as he said the words.

"Kiba's right man," said Chouji, munching on a potato chip, "Stop acting like such a wuss, and man up for a change!"

Lee's eyes sparkled.

"Shikamaru-kun, it is the man who must act like the valiant knight, and woo his princess!"

Neji and Shino merely looked at Lee's gay-fucked face. The world _did _have strange people on board.

Shikamaru sighed. Folding his legs, and slowly getting into a sitting position, the boy turned his head towards his group of friends.

"What makes you think that Ino likes _me_?"

Loud moans of agony were heard from all the other boys.

"Well, let me see..." said Kiba, pretending to think as he narrowed his eyes and scratched his chin. Upon achieving the effect he desired, he made a weird expression, slapping his hands together, and widening his eyes, "Maybe because she's been throwing her pussy about when you're around, since like a month?"

The rest of the group threw looks of disgust at the Dog-freak.

Shikamaru sighed.

"Whatever."

The group watched sorrily as the boy once again succumbed to stargazing.

_About fifteen minutes later_;

"How troublesome."

"Okay bastard, you're dead!"

* * *

The next day, Sakura Haruno walked up to school rather groggily. Ino had kept talking about her one-sided crush on Shikamaru for about two hours straight the previous night, and, by the time the blonde had finished, it was already fifteen past two in the morning.

Damn that girl, she could basically waltz her way to school after attending a late night party! Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with her.

Sakura sighed.

"How I hate that witch."

Untrue, but it was still soothing to say those words. Sakura smiled, Ino _had_ been there for her traumas, so she guessed it _was _sort of her duty to be there for the blonde when she needed her. It was just that, even though she really wanted to help the blonde with her case, the idiot just wouldn't accept that Shikamaru liked her!

The agony.

Sakura slapped a hand on her forehead, pressing hard, so as to make the intense headache she was feeling, a little less.

"Rough night?"

Upon hearing the words, Sakura snapped her head up to look at the speaker.

She was presented with sunny-blonde locks, and deep cerulean blue eyes. A smile graced her lips.

"Naruto."

The boy smiled at her. Then looking at her with a curious face.

"You look really tired, ya' know."

Sakura smiled thankfully at him, happy for the concern.

"Yeah, its just that my dumb-blonde-friend kept me up till a quarter past two in the morning!" Sakura closed her eyes, yawning, "And presently, I'm sleep-deprived."

Sakura turned her head to see a confused looking Naruto.

"I kept you up until a quarter past two yesterday?"

The pinkette's eyes widened, as understanding dawned upon her. She cracked up a little, only to add to Naruto's confusion, before bringing her hands up to slowly turn them from side to side in front of the blonde, in the attempt of clearing away his confusion.

"N-ho, it was Ino. She kept bugging me about her love problems till late into the night."

Naruto made an 'O' with his mouth, as the meaning of Sakura's former statements finally sunk into his head. He smiled in a sunny manner, and brought up his hands, settling them behind his neck, intertwining his fingers.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to get on the bad side of someone as pretty as you, ya'know."

Sakura reddened, and bent her head. Stealing a glance at the blonde, she found him smiling innocently at the road ahead. A smile appeared on her face as well.

Naruto Uzumaki _did_ have a way of his own. And it was really infectious.

* * *

The Konohan café had its normal homely-buzz. The students went about, eating, talking, doing stuff... Well, we all know what 'stuff' means.

Ino Yamanaka turned her head around as she tried to find the guy she was searching for since the morning, but didn't have a class with.

"Nara, you lazy creep, where the heck _are_ you?"

It was not like the guy to just up and ditch her like that. Even if they didn't have their lunch together, they'd still meet up once before break. That was a rule, and it hadn't been violated until then.

"Hey Yamanaka!"

Thankfully, it was still inviolate.

Ino turned around to find the spiky-black-haired kid lazily strolling towards her, a sheepish grin on his face. Ino placed her hands on her hips. Even then, she couldn't help the beat her heart skipped.

"Where've you been?"

Shikamaru cringed at the pitch of her voice. Boy, having a crush on a cheerleading captain sure was troublesome. Mentally sighing at his apparent demise, he finally came to a stop in front of the blonde, while said girl impatiently tapped her foot.

"The Quiz, you know that its been keeping me busy for the past couple of days. I've not been in the café in like a week!"

Ino scowled at him. 'The Quiz' was _so_ gonna get killed by her. To think that it'd kept someone from catching up with her, how scandalous!

"Anyway! Food?"

The blonde's anger on the Nara was put at bay at the mention of the thing she'd been craving. She smirked.

"Sure. There's someone I'd like you to meet too!"

A creepy clasp formed on Shikamaru's heart. Someone she'd like him to meet? Competitor? Hopefully not.

Tugging him along, Ino walked over to the table at the corner of the café. There were many students seated around the table [Of which, Sasuke Uchiha was a surprising member], and, judging by the laughter coming off the same, Shikamaru was sure that someone had said something funny.

However, he was just too anxious to think straight just then.

When Ino finally came to a stop in front of the table, along with the Nara, the boy saw a blonde head turned in the direction opposite to him. His eyes suddenly widened, all worries forgotten, as he contemplated on whether what Kiba and the others had said the previous night.

Was it true? Was he really here?

Ino tapped the blonde on the shoulder. And as his profile became visible, upon his turning, the Nara's eyes widened in confirmation.

"Naruto?"

The blonde looked up at the boy, and suddenly, his eyes widened as well.

"Shikamaru?"

Boy, this was an interesting development.

* * *

**A/N: I was really busy lately, so I don't know how this chapter turned out. Didn't have time to proof-read it ya know? So, if any grammatical error, or something of the sort turns up, forgive me. And I'm really into what's gonna happen after chapter 589, ya' know? Naruto's finally in the scene again! And the end's approaching, looking forward to some uber cool fighting scene between him and Tobi, and later, well, Naruto and Sasuke[Even though I want Sasuke to come back to the village in the end], and also, some NaruSaku action! :D Well, anyhow...**

**HOW WAS THIS? LIKE IT? HATE IT? PLEASE REVIEW! CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS ACCEPTED AS WELL. BECAUSE I'M NOT GONNA UPDATE IF YOU DON'T REVIEW, -_-, I'VE BEEN REALLY BUSY LATELY, AND IF I CAN STILL WRITE THIS, I GUESS THAT YOU CAN REVIEW TOO. :\**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**BTW, THE REVIEW BUTTON'S ON THE NEXT LINE! BUH BYE! :D**


	3. Physics Projects and English Fests

**Author's Note: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! The feed-back has been most motivating! Anyway, here's the shout-out!**

** Lily: Thankee! Here's your update!**

** NarutoLuver896: Thankee! I hope you continue to feel the same way about this fic until it ends!**

** NarutoLuver4346: :D Thankee! And yeah, the final fight _is_ really near, it sucks that the Manga's got a week's holiday, meaning no chapter this week. :\**

** FlannelCreep123: :D Thankee! Here!**

** PonyHunter11876: :D Thankee for the compliment! Hope this suffices! **

** Subzar: :D Thankee! And I guess, but still, I'd like to see Naruto succeed at everything, and that'd include Sasuke's redemption too, so... :\**

** lalala: :D Thankee! And there's here's the next chap!**

** Undergroundirector: :D Thankee! And you guessed right. :)**

** orca: :D Thankee bro [Or sis, whichever]! Here's the next chapter!**

** killa32: xD Thankee! Cool review, and don't worry the 'contradictions' were awesome. :D  
**

** Jake: :D Thankee bro! And here, the wait's over!**

** charles cdv: :D Thankee man!**

** GGxZeus: Eh? :D But your PM's were awesome, so, Thankee! :D**

** Bob the builder: :D Thankee man! And cool name. ;D**

* * *

Waves.

Naruto scrunched his eyes at his Physics-teacher. Physics had sort of been his favorite subject ever since he'd begun High School, as it was the only subject in which he was able to secure a decent Grade; B-.

But, upon the inception of his senior-year, things had, well, changed.

For one thing, Physics had become a subject that required _vas__t_ amounts of 'understanding'.

Something Naruto was quite bad at.

He sighed, and looked away from the man. His eyes scanned the classroom. If he was to discount himself, there were twenty-five students inside, not all of whom were paying attention to their teacher. There was Ino, who was hiding her cell-phone beneath her book and grinning at something the person she'd text-ed had sent her; there was Sasuke, who was boredly gazing at the class-room's window, in knowledge of him bagging an A+ when the time came; there was Tenten, who was carving the outlines of weapons into her desk, with her compass, something that Naruto found funny; there was Hinata, who was staring fixedly at her book; there was Sakura, who was looking at their teacher; and then, there was him.

Shikamaru Nara.

Naruto smiled.

During break, when they were at the caféteria, Naruto had met the boy after what had seemed like eternity. They'd exchanged a few greetings, and then, after Shikamaru had sat down, and everyone had started asking them how they knew each other, they'd gone into explaining their little bond.

After Naruto had left Konoha, and gone to Uzushio, his god-father, Jiraya, who was, incidentally, the coach of the school's basketball team, had asked him to take on sports and other activities to get additional credit [**Happens here, don't know about the rest of the world**], and that had been the start of the development of his. He'd picked up basketball, football, swimming and musical instruments, and had mastered each and every single one of them within the astounding time that a year had to offer.

However, he needed to at least obtain the cut-off percentage required to be able to go and join the school teams, and he had absolutely no time in his schedule to impose extra-study-hours onto.

This dilemma of his had been put to rest, when Jiraya had brought him a 'teacher', so to say, who was to help him get on with his studies during the last two periods Naruto had had free on Mondays and Thursdays, when he was still an Uzushio-Student. Naruto had been quite unhappy with the arrangement, since the idea of some elderly badass was basically something _really_ creepy to build on.

But what he had been offered wasn't an elderly crank-ass. In fact, he'd accurately thought of the boy to be the same age as him.

In retrospect, Naruto remembered that it had taken him very little time to identify the boy as the disaffected guy who used to sit lazily in the corners of every class, not fully paying attention to the teacher, but still come up with some of the highest marks in the class.

He'd been sort of fond of that boy, as the latter had been one of the few people who smiled at him.

Naruto liked smiles. To him they were the epitome of the happiness he'd yearned for as a kid.

Anyway, when he'd been told by Jiraya, that that boy would be his 'tutor', he'd put up a disaffected facade, even though he was really interested in seeing how things turned out. He was sure that the boy felt the same.

Over the course of the tuition-sessions they had during Naruto's and the boy's tenth grade, they'd found out a lot about each other. Naruto had found out that the boy's name was Shikamaru, and that he then had the best grades in his class; seeing as Sasuke was studying at Akatsuki High back then, and that the boy had an unnerving knack of the game of chess; while Shikamaru had found out more about the strife Naruto had been through.

Interestingly, they had reached a sort of understanding-each-other-point, and had, even though they'd never spoken a word related to the matter, agreed upon the fact that they'd tell no one about the other's life.

Naruto had liked that little bond.

Anyhow, after the second semester of his tenth grade had been over, Naruto had the grades which were necessary to be allowed entry to the school's teams.

The two had then separated [**Why does that sound gay? o_O**] on friendly terms and gone about with their own lives.

The blonde hadn't met the boy after that until today. And in a weird sense, Naruto thought it was sort of nice to see that Shikamaru hadn't changed much.

"Naruto?"

The blue-eyed boy was broken out of his thoughts. He closed his eyes, and shook his head, as he cleared his mind of reminiscent-thoughts, and looked straight to find the only visible eye on a half-masked face looking at him.

Grinning apologetically, Naruto turned back to look at the man. He stuck out his tongue at the awkward situation, and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry Kakashi-sensei!"

The man briefly looked on in a lazy manner, before closing his eyes, and smiling beneath his mask at the blonde.

"Strangely, its good to have you in my class again."

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha peered curiously at the sky. Ash-colored clouds covered up most of what was visible of said thing, giving off a mystical feel.

He frowned.

"This is irritating."

Naruto looked over at the boy in curiosity. He found said person staring upwards, a frown marring his handsome features. Intrigued, he looked up himself; only to find clouds forming a grayish layer above the city.

Contrary to Sasuke's reaction, the blonde smiled.

He turned towards said boy again and waggled his eyebrows curiously at him, "What makes ya' say so?"

Sasuke curved his lips to one side, and shrugged annoyedly, bending his eyebrows downwards.

"I've got a thing scheduled for today. Rain's not gonna help."

Curious, Naruto stopped walking for the first time since they'd left school, and looked at the Uchiha, who, after seeing his friend stop, ceased walking as well.

"Thing? You mean you've got a date?"

A childish grin broke out on the boy's face.

Sasuke Uchiha looked at him, slightly taken aback, and said nothing for a moment.

Then, he merely grunted, and looked away boredly.

"You wish."

Naruto raised his eyebrows, pressing the Uchiha on.

The black-haired prodigy merely sighed, and rubbed his temples with his right hand.

"Its this English fest sort of thing; two students will be coming from each school across the town, to Konoha, to have a workshop, tonight."

Naruto scrunched his nose in disgust. Studies. How disgusting.

But, the thought of Sasuke representing the school brightened his mood.

"Good luck with that, ya know!"

Naruto gave him a thumbs-up.

Sasuke grinned.

Turning back towards the road, the black haired-prodigy looked at the blonde from over his shoulder, and gave him a questioning-glance.

"Can we just go home now?"

Naruto grinned, and, without another word, started moving.

* * *

"Where are you going?"

Ino looked at the pinkette with curious eyes, while the latter slipped her feet into a pair of converses. She spent a minute or so in tying her laces, after which, she jumped up and skipped over to the mirror which was beside the shoe-cabinet of hers.

"Oh, I just wanted to take some help from Sasuke with my Physics project."

The emerald-eyed girl posed in front of the mirror checking her reflection, while her blonde haired friend skeptically looked her up.

_Help with Physics my ass. The bitch wants to jump the dude, that's what!_

Ino stood up and went over to her friend, coming to a stop beside her. She kept her scrutinizing glare focused on her pinkette of a friend, while the latter just went on fixing her hair.

After waiting for what seemed like an hour, Ino finally decided to say something.

"Bitch, what do you _find_ is Sasuke?"

Sakura gave her a funny look, as she tugged at her belt, bringing it to place. A slight trace of confusion went through her mind.

"What do you mean?"

She stopped fiddling with her belt, and finally gave her blonde friend a proper look.

Ino sighed.

"What's so good in Sasuke?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, and tilted her head.

"He looks like a god!"

Ino sighed again.

"And?"

Sakura opened her mouth, and suddenly her eyes widened. It was the second time in two days that Ino had stumped her regarding relationship matters, and that was _definitely_ not something Sakura found to be healthy.

"Whatever."

Trying to ignore the pitiful glance her friend gave her, Sakura turned around and walked up to the door.

Suddenly, she performed a sharp intake of breath. Her eyebrows fell down.

_What was happening to her these days?_

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha stood in front of the mirror, contemplating his overall look. He was dressed in a black tuxedo, with a black tie to finish it all off. The shirt beneath his blazer was parched white in color, and had an elite-tinge to it. His shoes were very shiny, being a completely new pair, and they merely added to the overall glaze of his look.

Sasuke Uchiha smiled in introversion. He look good. Now, for the final task.

He slowly tilted his head, and tried to smile at the mirror. His lips slowly gave way to perfectly white teeth, but then they started shaking. Thus, he got back to his initial position, and started to tilt his head a little again, before giving the mirror a repeat of his near demented smile.

"That's...so...gay..."

Sasuke's eyebrows twitched, and he swiftly turned his head to look at the offending blonde.

Said boy was seated on the couch of their drawing room, and was looking at the red-eyed prodigy with an aghast expression on his face.

"Shut up Dobe."

Sasuke turned back to the mirror, muttering something about irritating idiots. Unfortunately for him, Naruto wasn't one to let him off that easily.

"My roommate...is...gay..."

Sasuke snapped his head back at the blonde. He narrowed his eyes, and cast said guy a deathly glare.

But Naruto gazed past him, a far-off look on his face.

"I live...with...a...gay creep..."

Sasuke shook his head in irritation, stomping his way over to the mantelpiece in their drawing room, and grasping a file from there.

He was then about to shoot Naruto a grudging glare, but to his surprise, he found the blonde standing beside him.

Said boy grinned at the Uchiha, and placed a hand upon his right-shoulder.

"Break all the other nine legs you find there."

Sasuke chuckled.

The smile-dilemma was officially solved.

* * *

Sakura walked up the lane with a nervous tinge to her lips. How was she ever supposed to talk to Sasuke?

She sighed.

Well, she had thought of a way. Even though it had some risks of its own. But hey! One never got anywhere thinking like that!

The plan was to have Naruto talk Sasuke into 'helping her out with her Physics homework'.

But for that to work, one thing was extremely essential- Naruto had to be the one to open the door. If that didn't happen, well, she could pretty see herself saying 'Good Bye' to all her romantic fantasies. But this was a risk she had to take, for this was one of the only ways which lead to the 'Senior Prom' fantasy she'd had ever since she'd been a kid.

She turned around the next corner, and sighed to herself. It was the lane that lead to the apartment building inside one of the apartments of which lived two of the hottest guys at school.

_This is it_.

She mentally gave herself a slap, and started to walk towards said building, when suddenly a lump formed in her throat.

Was she going to be using Naruto?

She suddenly stopped in her track, and looked up at the building in front of her.

Thoughts of a handsome face, blonde hair, and blue eyes flooded her mind.

A frown fell upon her facial features.

Sighing in embarrassment, the girl finally started to move towards the building again.

She guessed she'd just have to discount the idiot from the plan.

* * *

Naruto closed the door behind him as he walked into the apartment he shared with his best-friend. Wearily kicking his shoes into the shoe-cabinet in front of him, he started to walk into his room, stretching as he did so. A muffled yawn escaped his lips.

Sasuke Uchiha had just left the apartment for the school, and the blonde had gone outside to see him off.

_English fest, huh?_

A smile grew upon Naruto's lips.

_Hope it goes well._

Walking deftly into the drawing room, he paused momentarily, and looked at the TV remote, contemplating on what to do. He furrowed his eyebrows, and thought about it a little, before shrugging dismissively, turning away from the remote, and starting to undress.

A shower was probably the best way to start.

After he'd unclothed himself to his inner-wear, he picked up his clothes and threw them into the laundry basket on the other end of the room. He paused for a second, grinning at his aim, before he started to walk towards the bathroom.

Once inside, he briefly paused and breathed in the warm moist air inside, feeling his brain become all fuzzy.

He grinned.

Then, the blonde went over to the bath-tub in the room, and switched on the geyser above it. He waited for a while, as the thing heated up, before turning the tap over the bath-tub and watching childishly as steaming hot-water started to get poured into the porcelain-tub.

Once it was full, Naruto finally gave up the last bit of clothing he had on, and jumped into the tub, grinning as the water splashed around his legs.

Then, when it was calm again, the blonde bent, and laid down in the bath-tub, closing his eyes as the water slowly over-brimmed and fell out.

The warm water caressed his skin, and he basked in the amazing feeling of calm that settled over him.

He grinned.

Having a bath was fun.

He opened his eyes, and started to think about all that had happened to him over the week.

Suddenly thoughts of a pink-haired, emerald eyed girl flooded his mind. His eyes darkened.

Sakura Haruno.

A smiled broke out across his face.

He was about to start thinking about the interactions he'd had with her, when suddenly-

_Ding!_

He frowned at looked at the bathroom door.

Who was it that had come?

_Ding!_

Grudgingly climbing out of the paradise he'd just discovered, he picked up a towel from a nearby hanger, and, after clumsily drying his body, draped it around his lower-self. Then, irately opening the bathroom door, the blue-eyed boy finally made his way towards the drawing room.

No one was to come to their apartment that day, so who was it that did?

Stretching his lips dismissively, the blonde shrugged. He'd find out soon enough anyway.

Sighing as he finally reached the door, Naruto took in a deep breath, and turned the door knob.

"Hel-Aah!"

He stared aghast at the person who stood in front of him, eyes widening in alarm as they saw a well toned petite frame, pink hair, and endless emerald-green eyes.

The blonde gulped.

"S-Sakura?"

The pinkette's face was already as red as a tomato, owing to the state of the blue-eyed male in front of her. Needless to say, she gulped as well.

"U-Um, hi."

* * *

_**I wrote the whole of this at 2:21 in the morning, and thus, I have **_**no_, __absolutely _no,_ idea of how this turned out. Its probably a bit off, seeing as I wrote it this late, but don't worry, I'll be back on track from the next chapter onwards. :)_**

_**SO ANYWAY THAT'S THE THIRD CHAPTER! HOW'S IT? LIKE IT? HATE IT? PLEASE REVIEW! **_

_**A CLIFF-HANGER? DON'T WORRY, I'LL UPDATE WHEN THERE ARE SUFFICIENT REVIEWS! THEY'RE THE REAL MOTIVATION I NEED!**_

_**~THA musIc GuY**_

_**P.S. - THE REAL NARUSAKU STARTS FROM THE NEXT CHAPTER!**_

_**BY THE WAY, THE REVIEW BUTTON IS JUST BELOW, DON'T FORGET TO CLICK ON IT! HOPE YOU HAVE A COOL TIME! BUH BYE!**_


	4. English Fests and Apartment Visits

**A/N: Its really late at night, so please forgive me, but the shout-outs are a little rushed.**

**Lily, Jake, OrcaDM, undergroundirector, lalala, NaruSaku 4346, M-J, raidersfan777, charles cdv, PonyHunter11876, and Kakashi's Master, THANKEE! :D YOU GUYS RULE!**

* * *

The black-head frowned at his cell-phone. He'd left the Dobe six messages since he'd left home, only to get no response in return! The nerve of that idiot! No one ignores Sasuke Uchiha! Sasuke Uchiha ignores all! And, to top it all off, the poor red-eyed-hotshot couldn't even think of what he'd done wrong, to be subjected to this sort of silent treatment.

It called for being irritated. Something that he _always _was.

Sighing, he left the corner of the Konohan hall, and slowly began to walk, slipping his phone inside his pocket as he did so. The venue for the inter-school English-meet was filled with teachers, professors, authors, poets, and students, moving about the place and talking to each other with irritatingly hypocritical attitudes. He frowned. What was the need for them to pretend to be such phonies? They were basically the most celebrated of the town's English-language-practitioners!

Listlessly wandering about the place, he found himself to be radically bored. Scratching his head in annoyance, he walked up to the self-helped-snack-buffet at the extreme front of the hall, figuring that food would provide him with a momentary break from the boredom.

Upon reaching the place, he picked up a plate, and critically surveyed the food on display, ultimately choosing to opt for the golden-nuggets which looked to be like some which had been cooked to utter perfection.

He smirked. Uchihas were fond of perfection.

Effortlessly lifting an arm to pick up the pair of tongs next to the metallic dish with nuggets, the Uchiha picked up a few of the small round chompers'-delights, with an almost sleepy expression on his face.

Why was he being subjected to such a thing? Wasn't he one of the people who were responsible for Konoha's fame? So why? Why was he being made to withstand something so unduly boring!

He sighed. He couldn't do much other than standing it all out just then anyway, and he wasn't being restrained from digging into the food either, so indulging in the same sort of seemed to be the most credible option.

Turning around, he felt like fatigue from being at the 'party' was soon going to set in on him soon, when suddenly his eyes caught hold of something.

At about the center of the hall, stood a girl in an elegant white gown, boredly looking at the old man in front of her, as the latter did all but devour her form with his eyes while making come incontrovertibly-corny 'Literary-Talk'. If anything, the girl looked a wee bit annoyed with the man's eyes which were stationed fixedly at her breasts, much unlike what the man must've wished to do mentally.

He smirked, before looking away from the man, and giving the girl a proper check out.

She had strawberry-blonde tied into an elegant, but still eye-catching, bun, held to place with two hair-sticks which his hawk-like eyes found to be red in color. She had peach-colored skin, which went beautifully with her hair-color. Her lips were ruby-red, and currently, bent down in a frown of annoyance. Her eyes, saw Sasuke, with his godlike eyesight, were purplish in color; something eerily uncommon, and currently bore down on the old man in front of her with mounting irritation. Her figure was superb, as could be seen from the skin-hugging gown she wore, and the little slit on the side of her gown revealed incredibly desirable and glossy legs.

_Well, this_ _is... _thought Sasuke, when a sudden feeling disoriented him.

_Ba-dum._

Mortified, he snapped his head and looked at his chest, his eyes widening, and face fast contorting into a frown. He gazed on for a few more moments, furrowing his eyebrows at the region, before finally looking up, and casting the girl another glance.

His face broke into a surprised, and, astonishingly, terrified grin.

_...new._

* * *

Sakura gazed abashedly at the blonde boy in front of her, her eyes involuntarily lowering towards his body, and her face reddening in the process. She tried to stop her organs of sight, dementedly screaming mental-threats at her own brain, but they seemed to not heed her words at all, considering that they'd already started their 'voyage-of-knowledge'.

His pectorals were ripped, she saw, and stood out imperially from his chest, and her eyes stationed there for a second, as they performed a quick memorizing of the area. Then they started to lower a bit, and perceived the boy's obliques which gave way to perfectly shaped abs, giving the boy's torso, an almost godlike vibe. Her eyes then traveled a bit up again, and stopped at the boys arms. His biceps stood out royally from them, and the triceps behind peeked at her eyes, as they carefully graced the sides of the former muscles. His forearms too were quite 'watchable', and, stationed by his abdomen, they looked absolutely splendid.

Sakura gulped.

Naruto Uzumaki was one _sweet _piece of cake!

Immediately after she'd thought that, she mentally berated herself for thinking so, cursing her mind's eye, and making it a point to slap herself across the face once she went back home. Even though, 'going home' was not exactly something her body willed to do just then.

_Cough!_

Sakura looked up to find a flustered Naruto looking to his right, his right hand scratching the back of his head. Head with damp, spiky, and _extremely sexy_ blond hair.

She shook her head, as understanding finally dawned upon her. Naruto had just seen her while she had been gluttonously gulping down the sight of him.

Her face reddened even further.

"Erm..."

She saw as Naruto slowly turned his head back towards her direction, although still bent downward, and ceased scratching the back of his head; now starting with his scalp.

"U-uh...," she said, not being able to formulate much of an intelligible sentence either. She looked on at the blonde, waiting to see what he said, and deciding that it would be much better to follow while he lead the way.

Feeling her discomfort, Naruto valiantly tried to look at her face again, only to fail miserably, and end up looking at the door's frame instead. He gulped down the lump in his throat, and, after that, finally started to croak out a logical sentence.

"Y-You sh-should probably come in.."

He bit his tongue, and looked down.

_No! _screamed Sakura's mind, _No! Don't go in, thing's will just get more awkwa-!_

_CREEATSH! _

Her eyes widened. Lightning? No! She'd almost forgotten, the whole purpose behind coming to Sasuke's house during such an overcast day was to stay there a bit longer. Now she was having her wish granted, albeit partially, and things were just turning out to be insurmountably awkward for her.

Gulping, and feeling extremely anxious about what was to happen next, she gave a short nod, while still not looking at Naruto, and managed to croak out a reply.

"I-I g-guess I sh-hould..."

* * *

The girl surveyed the room with emotionless eyes. The party was such a waste of her time! She could be spending this time at home, languorously stretching on her couch, while she saw some Gothic comedies. However, the way events were progressing at the 'Gala', that wish of hers was not to be heeded soon, for all she could work out.

Gazing wickedly at the buffet; something she found to be great at subjecting her to snack-inebriation, she boredly scowled. Food would do her some good, it really would, for she was really starting to become scandalized by the whorish looks the men at the party had been giving her.

She was always told that she'd looked good, but she'd always brushed away the compliments, much preferring to think that a 'Simple Outlook' would be the best option for someone like her. She was always subjected to being given the benefit of the doubt, much to her annoyance, and it definitely didn't bode well that, of late, she'd sort of developed a shorter temper than the one she'd had before.

But for then, beauty associated worries were forgotten as she brushed her way past the invitees at the gala, much to the delight of the men present, and finally arrived at the buffet. Once there, she sighed disdainfully, and gazed at the food in display with glee. She might have been the daughter of the Fire-borough's head-politician, but that didn't make her any less hungry, much to her personal satisfaction.

Grinning widely, she started to pick up a plate, when a sudden deep voice startled her.

"Haven't seen you around here, and yet, judging from the tag pinned to your gown, you seem to belong to the Fire-borough. Who are you?"

She turned her head slightly, expecting to find another man trying to strip her down with his mind's eye. The nerve of the idiot! Why couldn't they understand that she wasn't welcoming any sort of 'physicality' at the moment, from any one, and the geezers who had their wives playing with another woman's panties at their homes were _certainly _not options. Thus, she decided that she was done playing around, and needed to give one of the bastards a reprimanding.

Only problem was, she found out, as her eyes widened upon the sight of the man; this wasn't exactly a geezer.

A Black-Haired boy stood in the traditional hotshot stance, leaning against the nearest pillar, which was about four feet away from her. Clad in a simple-but-elegant black tuxedo, the boy cast her a critical look, and gave her a quick check out, making her feel a bit peeved under the weight of it all. His eye traveled up from her legs, to her tummy, her breasts, and then, finally, her face; and, in all the absurdity of it, the _girl, _who, incidentally, was the one being checked out, felt unable to bring herself to look the other in the eye!

How unusual.

Eventually, in a couple of seconds, the girl herself to be felt a bit curious as well, and started to discover how the boy in front of her actually _looked,_ slowly canvassing the lower portions of his body [**Holy Shit! That sounded weird!**]. His legs looked to be well-toned, for all she could think, judging from the way the pants fell over the said limbs of the boy. Satisfied with what she saw there, she looked up a bit more, and saw that his shirt bent inward at his abdomen, and stretched out at his chest,indicating a good build.

_He's really a nerd? What has the world come to? Well, his face'll tell m-_

She lost her trail of thought as the last view-able part of the boy's physique caught her eye. His face. It had an extremely fair complexion, which, although unsuitable on most, gave him the edge that would definitely give him the benefit of the doubt when compared with a tanned person. His hair was jet-black and hung in collective-strands against the two sides of his face, grazing them in a way which was _just _perfect. And then there was his pair of eyes...

Red orbs glinting with elitism at her. Crimson irises she could find absolutely nothing in. So concealed, so curiosity-awakening.

She gulped.

This was new.

"My name's Sasuke Uchiha," said the boy, jerking himself gracefully off the pillar, and starting to walk up to her, whilst still pointing at himself, "Konohan representative."

The girl gulped again, opening and closing her mouth in vain twice, before finally uttering an intelligible reply.

"Kairi," she smiled weakly at him, "Kairi Itogawa."

* * *

Sakura surveyed her surroundings with wide eyes. The floor was wooden, glistening softly as the light from the designer-bulbs scattered along the roof, and was littered with expensive looking pieces of furniture. Not that she cared about expense, the partial reason of which was her financial stability, but the items present in the apartment really gave her goosebumps from desire!

There was a leather couch, which, for all she perceived, was very elite-looking; there was a glass table, with a panther made of iron for its support; there was an extremely large LED screen in front of her, against the wall which faced the main door of the apartment. Then there were the glasses, which seemed to be almost everywhere, occupying about every little decoration stand, reflecting the light and giving the apartment a near surreal vibe.

Sakura smiled in awe.

So _this _was where those two lived! Not too shabby!

A light click was heard, and Sakura turned her head to find Naruto coming out of the room on the extreme end of the hallway which picked up from the drawing room. He was wearing blue colored track-pants, and pulling on a loose t-shirt over his head, giving Sakura another look, albeit small, at his perfect six-pack.

She blushed.

What was happening! This was Naruto for Chris'sake, someone that'd moved here just about a week ago, and someone whom she merely considered to be a friend!

_A close friend, to be precise_, piped in her mind.

She internally groaned. This was uncalled for! Whatever _this_ was! It had been bugging her the whole day, ever since Ino had mentioned it the last night, and she was certainly not finding anything _that_ definite, which could blow away her insecurities; leading to the agitated mass she felt she was morphing into.

Retreating mentally, she finally checked her thoughts, and slapped on a fake-smile as Naruto came up to her and grinned.

Of all the things she had discovered, and was discovering, about the blonde, his grin had caught her mind the most. It had an almost supernatural power to make people forget their woes, and, for a moment, however short that might be, feel absolutely phased-off by the sheer cheerful-force that accompanied the said action of the boy.

Which kind of justified the momentary breathlessness she felt, when the blue-eyed Baka presented her with his stretched mouth, disclosing his wonderful white set of teeth.

She gulped, as a familiar feeling, which she still couldn't place, began to form in her stomach. She opened her mouth out of instinct, feeling that she should say something before she made an absolute fool of herself, when suddenly Naruto looked away, and pointed at the TV.

A small part of her actually felt _disappointed_.

"Wanna watch something?"

Her mind readily agreed, _anything _to take away the current confusions that plagued her mind.

"Sure," she said, the smile still on her lips.

She followed Naruto, as he walked up to the couch that faced his Television, and slumped down on it, sighing as the softness of said substance enveloped him. A part of her wanted to scold him for acting so dismal, what if she had been a complete stranger? She knew that Naruto acted the same way in front of everyone, which, the aforementioned part of her mind thought was something that needed to be remedied.

But there was still another part of her, which sort of scared her, that admired the openness of the boy. He was up for the whole world to see, no dual personality, no two faces, just..._ him! _

Smiling, she decided to ignore her need to actually 'do' something about the situation just then, and slumped down beside him, cheerfully smiling at nothing in particular.

The pinkette watched as Naruto fumbled with the remote controls in the little basket on the table in front of them, his back turned to her. Suddenly feeling the urge to start up a conversation with him, she decided to ask him the thing that had been intriguing her ever since she'd walked into the apartment.

"Um, Naruto?"

She watched as the blonde quickly left the remotes, and sat up to look at her. She smiled at the dept of his eyes as he looked at her, mentally happy at his acute obnoxiousness.

"How did you and Sasuke get the cash to buy this place... and this stuff?"

She saw his eyes widen for a second, before suddenly his face started to redden. Her curiosity heightened when he looked away from her and suddenly began to gaze at random objects around him.

"Err.."

Her eyes widened. _Naruto _was fumbling? This _had_ to be saucy! Straightening herself slightly, she grinned mischeviously at him.

"What! Temme Baka! Temme!"

The blonde turned to her for a second, pondering on whether to tell her or not. He gazed into her eyes, and, entranced by their depth, he felt like he could divulge any secret to her. He opened his mouth slightly, and uttered the first syllable of whatever he was going to say, before his eyes widened again, and he abruptly shut his mouth; the nature of the secret fast coming back to his mind.

"I-Its nothing!"

_Yeah right! More like 'Its the sexy shit that makes my night' you bitch! Spill it! Shannaro!_

Sakura's grin widened, and she inched a bit closer to him. If she'd not been as curious as she was, she'd notice that their proximity had just increased two-fold. However, she was much too gossip-drunk to care.

"Spill the shit, boy! Spill it!"

Naruto glance back at her again, about to tell her to piss off, when his eyes suddenly fell upon her lips. Moist, warm-looking, rosette which was open almost invitingly for him to jump into. He gulped, his retort quickly travelling back his wind pipe, as his mouth suddenly took control of the situation.

"My godfather paid!" he squealed, his face reddening as soon as he'd spoken the words.

Sakura blinked.

"Eh?"

Naruto looked inexplicably peeved, as he began to turn away. He started to try to crawl away, when Sakura suddenly realized his intentions, and pulled him back, pushing him against the couch, and standing up to step in front of him.

"Talk," she said, pointed at the scared Uzumaki.

The blonde looked at both sides a couple of times, hoping against hope for a miraculous way to escape to appear. However, no such miraculous way presented itself, and ultimately he found himself bowing his head in front of her, as he finally squealed out his response.

"My godfather, Jiraya."

Sakura scrunched her eyes.

"Who?"

"The writer of the Icha Icha Series."

"Icha Wh- Oh."

Images of three books started to flood her mind. Once, when she'd gone to the staff room to submit her Physics project to Kakashi-sensei, she'd found the staff room to be empty. Deciding to leave her project on her teacher's table, she'd gone over to said object, when she'd suddenly found a suspicious looking, green colored book on the same.

Being the bookworm she was, she was unable to resist her urge to find out what the book was about, her curiosity heightened by the fact that the book looked absolutely new, and had the words 'International Bestseller' printed onto its cover.

Thus, keeping her project-file on the table, she'd picked up the book, and started to read the first few lines of its first chapter...

...only to have had it fall off her limp hands a moment later.

She shivered. Memories of the erotic things that those few lines had stirred in her mind, still made her aghast.

She shook her head, and focused on Naruto again, while the latter blushed in shame as he looked away. She wanted to ask the boy to reprimand his godfather, and tell how said person did to find out about such things, and thus she opened her mouth; only to close it a moment later.

A large part of her self told her that she didn't exactly want to _know _the answer to that.

Thus, gulping down her shame, she decided to break the awkward silence.

"Lets watch something."

Naruto looked up at her, and saw that she had already put the matter past her. He felt something flutter deep inside him.

Unable to fully comprehend the feeling, he did the first thing that came to his mind. He grinned at her, nodding.

Sakura Haruno was different.

He liked different.

* * *

Sasuke looked at the girl beside him, as the pair walked out of the school building. The moon light shone off her features, giving her a beauty which was beyond his comprehension. Before he knew it, he was staring at her, eyes wide, drinking in whatever feature of hers he could see.

She turned to look at him, and his eyes suddenly widened. He'd been caught red-handed, staring at the daughter of the borough's mayor, as he'd found her out to be, nonetheless! Looking away, he winced, closing his eyes as he expected the teasing to ensue. Any moment now, any mo-

"You're cute."

His eyes opened, as his mind registered what she'd just said, and he turned to look at her, finding her to be smiling at him impishly, her eyes closed.

A feeling similar to what he'd felt at the beginning of the night crashed upon him. He gulped. What was this?

Shaking his head in incomprehension, he looked away from the girl, and decided to reply instead.

"People say so."

Inwardly, he cringed at the conceit that the sentence was laden with. He expected her to rebuke him for saying such a thing, and stomp off in disgust. Cowardly he waited for her response, not quite feeling confident enough to look at her again. She was sure to have been disappointed. He knew it. He knew that she was disa-

"I'm sure they do."

Shock flitted across his face, as his ears caught hold of her words. He thought of turning his head to look at her, to talk with her, and smile at her, but before he could do so, he felt his stomach flip.

What was happening to him?

He sighed, finally deciding against it. He kept looking ahead, his eyes staring sleepily at the moon-lit road ahead.

"Heh."

Her voice was soft, barely audible, but Sasuke still caught hold of it.

Involuntarily, a grin slowly slid its way to his face.

He bent his eyebrows, deciding to let the grin stay on his face, as he looked at the girl beside him from the corner of his eyes. He found her gazing dreamily at the moon ahead, an unreadable expression in her eyes.

His grin grew wider.

Kairi Itogawa.

What an intriguing girl.

* * *

_**Yes, the ending was purposefully made similar to that of the first chapter. Anyway, its 2:18 here, and I'm awake again. Somehow, I only feel like writing fiction at night. :D Heh.**_

_**ANYWAY, HOW WAS THIS? LIKE IT? HATE IT? I REEEEEEALLLLLLYYYYY APPRECIATE REVIEWS! :D**_

_**THE NEXT UPDATE WILL COME UP AGAIN WHEN SUFFICIENT REVIEWS ARE RECEIVED! AND, FOR MY PERSONAL SATISFACTION, I'D LOVE IT IF EVERY ONE WHO READS THIS LEFT A REVIEW! BE IT GOOD, OR BAD! I ACCEPT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM! :D**_

_**~THA musIc GuY**_

_**THE REVIEW BUTTON'S ON THE NEXT LINE. BUH BYE! HAVE A COOL TIME! :)**_


	5. Apartment Visits and Ramen Bars

"Forehead!"

Snapping out of her daze, Sakura turned to look at the girl opposite to her. The latter's blonde hair had been loosened up by the same, for the night, as the two had taken the decision of going to the local Ramen bar. Sakura wasn't someone who'd exclusively choose Ramen, if ever asked what she wanted after going out, but the hot noodles _did _momentarily take her mind off the disturbing _things _she'd fallen prey to off late.

The girl, pulled her chopsticks out of her bowl, and sharply pointed at the pinkette with them, narrowing her eyes as she did so.

"What's _wrong! _You've been zoning out like that for, like, the whole of the past month!"

Oh bummer!

The emerald-eyed girl snorted, and leaned back against her couch, throwing her head back to stare at the bar's ceiling. Golden bulbs lined the bar's top, swirling around, and creating shapes closely resembling those of Ramen noodles. It was an enthralling show, really, but Sakura's mind was much too preoccupied to care.

About a month previously, she'd had an encounter, which, to say the least, was an uncomfortable one. The tanned skin which had been exposed to her eyes, and the rippling muscles underneath had been, in the least, a very... _different _experience.

It had sparked up the burning of a number of _unpleasing_ activities onto her mind. A week after the incident, she'd gone off to sleep, feeling bummed over the sudden cancellation of a concert she'd been waiting for to happen with anticipation, and a weird event had transpired inside her mind... one that involved sweat, blonde locks, tanned skin, and herself.

She suddenly reddened as the images floated back to her mind.

"Forehead! That's like, the _second _time in a row!"

And now, she became irritated at Ino for snapping her _out _of her thoughts about said images. The irony!

"I call bull, pig!" muttered the pinkette, rubbing her head in vain, as she tried to get the headache mounting inside her, to go away.

"Oh, really? Honestly, what's wrong with you? You're usually bitching up on me."

Gee, how grateful she was for the- _compliment?_ Whatever.

Sakura flitted her eyes towards the blonde, and saw that the girl was looking at her with a weird expression. A weird expression which she was all _too _familiar with. Her own eyes widened in despair, as she saw the blonde smirk at her. Sinking back silently into the couch, she cowardly stuttered out a few incomprehensible words, trying to subdue the teasing with all her might, which to her dismay, was _very _small at present.

"Sooo, miss pinky," She saw Ino gleefully narrow her eyes at her, and winced at what was to come, "Should I think that you got _lucky _with the school's King?"

_You wish, piglet! Shannaro!_

"N-Not exact- What? What is it?"

Sakura threw Ino a questioning glance, as the latter's eyes widened in all suddenness. The blonde gave her no reply, but merely continued to stare at something behind her. Sakura felt an inexplicable desire to turn around and see what it was that made her friend look so, but weirdly, her intuition warned her against it.

She was about to frame a question, when the blonde girl in front of her, suddenly raised her hand and let out a shrill greeting.

"Naruto! Sasuke! Hey!"

Sakura froze.

_No! No! No! No! Nonononononononononono_!

She'd been avoiding being alone with the blonde for the past month, ever since their little, er, _ interaction_. Clean-up duties, duet-duties, Kurenai's drama sessions, and whatnot had she had to overcome to get away from the frightening reality of having to spend time alone with Naruto. She'd even skipped a couple of classes to avoid the blue-eyed boy.

Strangely though, Naruto hadn't seemed to have paid much heed to her absence. An absent frown crept up her face at the thought. People bent over to please her, if she started to avoid them, but, the blonde baka had merely tried to catch up with her a couple of times, and then, much to her surprise, let her be.

The nerve of the idiot! No one ignores Sakura Haruno! No one!

Suddenly deciding on rebuking the guy, for his most indecent lack of greetings to her, Sakura began to spin around, when a warm hand clasped her shoulder without warning. Her movements stopped, and her eyes widened. Warm hand, soft... she intuitively guessed at who it belonged to, and then, slowly, began to turn her head up to confirm if her guess was correct or the opposite.

What she was offered with though, quickly had all the air inside her whoosh out.

Was he wearing something on his face? He had to be! She'd only not seen him for what was a week and a half, but, she didn't remember him being this ha- _presentable! _Nearly gulping with the effort of pushing back a blush, Sakura's eyes hungrily drank in the sight of the blonde. A black T-Shirt, with Konoha's trademark leaf-logo, was what the boy was clothed in, his lean muscles softly providing shape to the thing. Cargo pants that went down to a little below his knees was what enclosed the boy's lower half. A husky scent came off him, entrancing Sakura to no end; making her look up to his eyes. They were wide, the skin around them scrunched, as a cheery smile lit the boy's face.

_Crap, he's gorgeo- Shut up! Shannaro!_

Furiously shaking her mind on the inside, the pinkette weakly relayed her own smile to the blonde.

"What'up Sakura?" He closed his eyes, and merrily tilted his head to a side. The girl he'd addressed followed the movement of his blonde bangs with entrancement, and was unable to find an immediate response to his greeting. Even when she finally did catch a hold of her senses, her reply was week, and malformed.

"Na-aruto. H-Hey..."

She absently gazed at his grin, which widened at her response. She was about to continue with her exploration, when suddenly, a sharp voice interrupted her thoughts.

"I'm sorry, Forehead's like, sorta off today, ya'know? Anyway, what's up blondie?"

Naruto removed his hand from Sakura's shoulder, suddenly making it feel cold, and pointed at the other blonde. His grin grew.

"You're one to talk!"

Ino laughingly pouted at him.

"Whatever! Take a seat."

The two boys obediently did as they were told, with Naruto casting a sly glare at Sasuke. Sakura narrowed her eyes at this, but didn't bother to question it, knowing only too well that the blonde would end up humiliating her as well for her curiosity.

However, Ino felt no such restraint.

"Oi! What's with the look? Did mister stoic pull off something we should be aware of?"

Naruto looked at Ino for a moment, blinking as his mind registered the blonde's words. Then, he turned towards the Uchiha, who's eyes widened in horror, as the latter realized the former's intentions. However, Naruto didn't give him a single chance to retort, as he suddenly snapped his head towards Ino, and in a humorously childish voice, began his teasing.

"Sasu-_kun_'s got a Weetul Cwush, don't chu Sasu-_kun_?" The girls watched in amazement, as the blonde boy in front of them did something that most, if not all, Konohan students would have a heart attack whilst doing. Funnily catching hold of Sasuke's cheek, the Uzumaki softly pulled at it, while speaking with the baby-accent.

However, that was the least of Sakura's concerns for then. The Uchiha had a _crush? _How did she not know this! Who was it exactly that he was crushing on? And what was the reason for the inexplicable lack of a reaction on her part to the blonde's remark?

Too much to think about! She closed her eyes momentarily, and softly shook her head, before casting Ino a glance; only to find the blonde looking hungrily at Naruto. The pig! She didn't miss a single chance at getting gossip, did she?

"Who? Tell me dammit! Tell me!"

Ino's voice's pitch had people turning towards her from the surrounding tables, but she was much too interested to be concerned.

Naruto cast his best friend a look; his best-friend, who was currently glaring daggers, knives, forks, and all the other 'instruments of joy' at the blonde, before looking at Ino again, and grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry, Teme here's gonna stab me if I told you that," the relieved look on Sasuke's face was too hard to miss. But then the blonde continued, "You'll find out soon enough though."

And they were back where they'd started; Sasuke glaring, Naruto teasing, Ino getting excited, and Sakura blushing.

* * *

Naruto walked down the path to the apartment cautiously, casting sideways glances every once in a while to make sure that his Uchiha room-mate wasn't trying to sneak up on him and murder him; what with the thing he'd told Ino after they'd left Ichiraku's.

_I guess the new girl _does _look pretty cute, eh?_

It _was _inconspicuous. Or at least, that was his perception of the thing. In no way could Ino connect _all _those dots, and realize that Kairi Itogawa was the girl Sasuke was crushing on! That was just another fantasy of the Uchiha. In all honesty, the way the raven-haired teen had reacted once they were alone, had, in the very least, been the extreme of 'surprising'.

The Uchiha had cast two glances at the blonde, and then landed a _hard _punch on his shoulder. Upon Naruto's cry, and asking for the reason why he'd punched him, Sasuke had merely glared at the boy and told him that it was for 'selling him out'.

Deciding to get even with the Uchiha, the blonde had cunningly smirked at the Uchiha, making the latter stop in his tracks and gulp, before giving him the trademark 'Uzumaki prank-grin'.

"So you _do _like Kairi?"

The blush on Sasuke's face had been absolutely priceless, making Naruto mentally land a hit on his head for not having a camera to make the moment immortal. It would've undoubtedly made its way to his 'favorite tools to tease Sasuke' list. The Shame.

Anyway, the next moment, the Uchiha had suddenly turned around and told the blonde that he had some work to do, leaving the latter in a state of stupor, and walking away in all his stoic-assed pride.

_The bastard._

Naruto took the next turn, and upped his pace. Being alone in the apartment was not something he was exceptionally fond of, but it was unarguably better than walking through a dimly lit street with the pressing threat of being subjected to the homicidal actions of his best friend.

He chuckled.

His thoughts _were_ running wild alright.

* * *

Sakura had no idea why she was waving good-bye to her blonde roommate, neither did she have any idea about why she was sending a message to Naruto asking him where Sasuke was. It was remotely disturbing for her mind, but she'd just found out something. Something that she needed to discuss with someone. And surprisingly, to her, the blue-eyed boy seemed to be more qualified a confidante than Ino!

But that was the least of her worries for then.

A frown began to marr her features, while she climbed out of her apartment-building's door, and walked out into the cool night air; something that was unique to the fire borough; if one were to talk of the elemental municipality.

Sasuke Uchiha was crushing on some girl. _Sasuke _Uchiha was crushing on some girl. That should've had her clutching her pillows, distraught at the sudden decrease in her chances of wooing the black-haired prodigy! Not left unaffected by the turn of events. It was new to her! All this was _new! _

As she took the next turn, and started to walk up a lane, she pondered on how she used to turn into an abusive mess, not a long time ago, whenever she used to think that the Uchiha was _feeling _something for another girl. She'd go to the bitch and set her straight, making her lurk around in the corners of the school premises, away from the eye of the black-haired prodigy.

Weirdly though, when, earlier that night, Naruto had suddenly revealed the Uchiha's infatuation with a girl she was unware of; she'd seemed to take the matter surprisingly well. So much, that it irritated her that she'd been able to take it in such a manner.

It was something that could've been considered weird and unnatural. However, 'Weird and Unnatural' was just how Sakura rolled.

A nervous grin adorned her face, as her destination finally made the vicinity.

Hopefully, she'd soon be able to find out a solution to her dilemma.

* * *

Naruto gazed down at the person in front of him, his eyes slowly widening at the sight. Strawberry blonde hair, tucked into a bun, with a few delicate strands poking out, softly grazing the sides of a stunningly pretty face. Purple colored eyes sized him up, just as he did her, and stopped at his face, finding him looking at her with daze.

"You look amazing, miss!"

Normally, she'd be shocked at the utter pervertedness of the situation; there she was, standing before a guy, albeit sexy guy, whom she'd just happened to meet, and was already being subjected to a straight out compliment which many would perceive as being an outright display of flirting. However, Kairi Itogawa found herself to be absolutely struck by the genuine grin that the boy presented her with, his eyes closed, and his head tilted, as he softly leaned against the door frame.

She felt an unusual blush creep to her face.

"T-Thanks," she managed, gulping as she saw the blonde guy open his eyes again, and look at her with delightfully deep blue orbs.

He smiled.

"How may I help you, fellow transfer student?"

The purple-eyed girl had to stifle a laugh at the way he'd constructed his sentence. Talk about unusual! She'd heard a lot about the famous Naruto Uzumaki, and unsurprisingly, he definitely seemed to be living up to his reputation. She smiled warmly at him, all awkwardness quickly forgotten, and finally gave him a proper reason for her coming.

"Is Sasuke here?"

She saw him blink at her, before a sly grin suddenly appeared on his face. As much as one would think that the grin was directed at her, she couldn't help but feel otherwise. Naruto Uzumaki was known for his sunny character, but there was yet another personality of his that was just as famous; and it was that of a prankster.

He mischevously smiled at her, before opening the door behind him, and motioning for the the girl to come inside.

"Teme's not here right now, but don't worry, he's gonna be here in a while."

Still suspicious about the intentions of the boy in front of her, Kairi contemplated on her choices. A moment later, she realized that the only option she had, was that of obliging with the blonde's suggestion.

Weirdly though, she felt no restraint as such in doing so, however odd the look he was sporting seemed to be.

* * *

Naruto casually plopped down on the couch opposite to the strawberry-haired girl, and looked at her. She was presently sitting down, her manner reserved, and sipping cautiously at the cup in her hands. She'd placed a notebook, and a pen on the table in front of her, having had previously told him that she needed Sasuke's help with something.

The way she blew at the coffee in her cup, and the way her legs were crossed regally in front of her, suddenly made Naruto aware of a fact.

She was unusually well-mannered for the situation.

"You don't need to do that, ya know."

He saw Kairi's eyes flit towards his face, and her eyebrows raise, as confusion settled on her facial features.

"Do what?"

Naruto sat forward, and looked her cooly in the eye; his gaze unwavering as he answered her question.

"Sit like that. You're too composed! Dattebayo!"

The purple-eyed teen blinked surprisedly at the blonde's words.

"B-But, you're Naruto Uzumaki!" She blurted out, placing her cup on the table, and throwing him a confused glance, "Dad says that we should always behave in an official manner when we talk to respected people."

Naruto saw the girl redden, although the reason escaped him. Deciding not to ponder on that, he settled on giving her a reply.

"Gimme a break! I'm your freaking classmate for heaven's sake!"

Kairi opened her mouth, as if to retort, but then suddenly closed it. Her eyed widened a tiny bit, while her gaze remained fixated upon the blonde in front of her. Naruto realized that she was trying to work up a suitable way to rebut him, and his eyes suddenly narrowed at the girl.

"You're too much like Teme, ya know?"

Kairi confusedly narrowed her eyes at the boy.

"Excuse me? Who's 'Teme'?"

Naruto leant back on the couch, before lowering his eyes to meet those of the girl in front of him.

"Sasuke," he replied indifferently.

The reaction that he aroused though, had his mind lurch forward in confusion. He saw the strawberry-haired girl's eyes widen momentarily, as she got up, and came to sit down next to him. She kept the minimum possible distance between the two of them. Suddenly, for the first time that night, Naruto inwardly gulped. Here was a girl, who was prettier than most he'd seen in his life, sitting next to him, so close, that he could practically feel her breath on his face.

"C-Can I ask you something about Sasuke?"

A part of him lightened, but he was still too preoccupied to catch the sound of the door to the apartment clicking open.

"What?"

"Promise not to laugh at me?"

He saw her redden up a little, and bite her lips. He realized that whatever she was about to tell him, was larger than he was expecting, _and _it had something to do with Sasuke! Sasuke, who was incidentally the very guy who was crushing on her!

"Sure."

He gulped as he saw her mouth shake open, as she got ready to reveal whatever it was that she was thinking to him, before a sharp voice suddenly cut through his thoughts.

"Am I interrupting something?"

He snapped his head towards the source, and to his extreme surprise found a pink-haired girl standing at the doorway. She was a surprised expression on her face, mixed with something deeper which he was not exactly able to comprehend. His eyes widened, as he realized what the girl must've perceived from the way he was sitting beside Kairi, and instantly opened his mouth to retort.

"Sakura-chan, its-!"

"I-I'll just-," the shock on her face grew, as she gazed a bit more at the two teens, sitting closer together than two people of the opposite gender usually did, and suddenly turned around to start running up the fleet stairs in front of the apartment; the ones which led to the roof.

Too shocked at the sudden turn of events, Naruto merely stared after her dumbly opening and closing his mouth, while the footsteps slowly faded away, indicating that the pinkette had reached the building's top. His eyes grew wide as he pondered on what she'd thought, and what her actions meant. He realized that she must've thought that he and Kairi were doing something couple-y, and suddenly found himself needing to find a way to get to her, and tell her that it was all just a huge misunderstanding.

However, he was much too dazed to get up. An impending feeling of despair, which he was not wuite able to understand, fell upon him, enveloping him, before another voice break his daze.

"Go after her! Now!"

He turned to see Kairi standing up, and looking at him with the intention of urging him along.

Wordlessly he stood up, and obliged, breaking into a soft-run, as he lingered upon the emerald-eyed girl's reaction.

* * *

Sakura stood on the roof, pressing her hands against the railing of the same, as she tried to evaluate her actions in the past few seconds. Why was she acting in such a way? All she'd done was see Naruto close to another girl! Big deal! Like she cared about that!

However, her strong facade soon crashed down, as she miserably realized that a mounting ache was building within her chest. What was _this? _First, she'd seen Naruto in that... not too un-awkward setting a month ago, then she'd started to have those dreams about the guy; something which still disturbed her, but she'd shrugged it off as a mere result of her hormones, nothing out of the ordinary!

However, the reaction the sight of the guy had just evoked in her, was beginning to scare her. What was this? The feeling was almost completely alien to her! A relatively similar thing was what she used to feel when she'd see Ino acting all close and personal with Konoha's King. But nothing similar had happened in over a year, and the sudden onslaught of such unwelcome sensations was more than a little annoying for the girl.

She looked at the glistening structures that constituted the fire-municipalitied sky-line, and longingly stared at them, hoping for them to present her with a miraculous way to solve the mental mess of hers.

Unfortunately for her, no such 'miraculous way' presented itself.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

She tensed at the voice, knowing too well who it belonged to. An uncalled frown began to marr her features, as she croaked out a statement.

"Go away."

"Ah, but that just wont do Sakura-Chan."

She snapped her head towards him, suddenly feeling an irritating anger building up inside her. She found him strolling casually towards her, his hands tucked into his black pants, while his orange shirt pressed against his body in the night breeze. Without any warning, her ire suddenly vanished, and she found herself gazing her the toned features of the blonde's physique that were brought to light by the way his clothes played in the wind.

Unconsciously, as the blonde neared her, she blurted out a question.

"Are you seeing Kairi?"

She was surprised, but more at her curious question, than at the blonde's aparrent relationship with the girl. It wouldn't have been that surprising, considering how she'd lost almost half of her fanboys to the girl as soon as she'd introduced herself in class. Sakura scowled as she remembered the sickening looks of amazement she'd seen on the faces of both Sasuke _and_ the blonde in front of her when the girl had done so. She was about to turn away from the guy, her ire returning fast, when she heard him suddenly crack up.

"G-ha-Geez Sa-ha-kura chan! Th-hat's really funny! You seriously thought that I ha-have a th-ha-thing for _Kairi_?"

She blinked at him, confused.

Naruto cracked up even more, his dimples showing as he bent over laughing.

"That's hilarious!"

The pinkette suddenly felt all the rage, and the confusion bubble away from her, as realization struck her. So the Baka _wasn't _involved with that girl after all! An involuntary sigh of relief escaped her lips, as she watched him come up next to her, and stand, his hands pressed against the railing, as his eyes moved over the Fire-Skyline.

An unknown flipping ensued in her chest, when Sakura saw the blonde grin.

"Sasuke would be more fit for that fantasy."

She was so preoccupied with looking at the blonde's face, that she didn't even take in the words he'd just uttered. However, her foggy mind slowly _did _register his statement, and then her eyes conveniently widened.

"No way..."

The blonde mirthfully winked at her.

"Yes way."

"Sasuke's crush is _Kairi?_"

Instead of the jealousy she expected to feel, a cheerful smile began to tug at her lips. But she was much too surprised by the latest gossip she'd been given possession of, to take notice of that. Chuckling softly, she turned away from Naruto to look at the skyline again, and began to remember her primary motive behind coming to talk to the blonde that night.

Weirdly though, she wasn't able to bring herself to tell him about her 'infatuation' with Sasuke.

Instead, she said something she hadn't even considered or thought about before.

"Isn't it weird how one tries so hard to be accepted by someone, only to find out in the end that it was probably never meant to be?"

She felt the blonde look at her through the corner of his eyes, before softly smiling, and turning around to press his lower-back against the railing.

"Maybe that's because striving for acceptance is what gets us going forward."

And just like that she felt all her stress bubble away, as unbeknownst to her, something within her clicked.

* * *

**YAAAWWWWNNNN! FINALLY, AFTER ALL THE URGING I RECEIVED FROM GGxZeus, I FINISHED WRITING THIS CHAPTER! AND SERIOUSLY, I'VE ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE AS TO HOW IT TURNED OUT, I'M MUCH TOO TIRED ANYWA****Y.**

** Guest- The Perks of being a Wallflower's a book right? LoL I didn't know shit about the thing till today! xD Anyway, if the line's there, I guess I'd better change it before I get sued. ;)**

**ITS REALLY, REALLY LATE IN THE NIGHT RIGHT NOW, SO I'LL JUST GO ON WITH THE USH-!**

**HOW WAS THIS? LIKE IT? HATE IT? REVIEW! :3**

**UPDATES ARE GONNA GET A BIT SLOWER AS I START BOARDING AGAIN, I'LL BE COMING ONLINE FROM MY GALAXY NOTE, THAT TOO ONCE A WEEK, FROM THE SEVENTH OF JULY ONWARDS AS MY BOARDING SCHOOL REOPENS, SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME, I WILL UPDATE, BUT LIKE, ONCE IN TWO WEEKS, OKAY? I'LL TRY TO UPDATE ANOTHER CHAPTER BEFORE THAT, JUST GIVE ME ENOUGH REVIEWS TO MOTIVATE ME! :D**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**TILL NEXT TIME FOLKS! :D**

**And you guys aren't reviewing. I'm sad. :( I don't know when I'm gonna update this for now. I got just 8 reviews for this chapter. I'm probably losing my touch. :( **


	6. Sick Leaves and Crushes

**A/N: Here's a filler chapter!**

**THANKEE FOR YOUR REVIEWS!**

* * *

Chapter 6

* * *

The dog-lover eyed the purple-haired Hyuuga from a corner of the classroom. The latter was seated on the fourth seat of the first row from the door's side. She wore a simple white jacket, with purple markings all over, and a violet pair of trousers. Her eyes were pinned to the man who was presently addressing the whole group of students gathered in the room, while those of Kiba were, not unlike the rest of the Hyuuga's admirers, pinned to the girl instead.

He saw her frown once, and softly bite her plump little lower lip.

He gulped.

Forcing himself to turn away from her, the boy tried to focus on what the man in front of him was saying. It was their Math teacher; Asuma. The rough-voiced man was currently blabbering on about their Math syllabus for their first semester; however, Kiba found himself unable to pay much attention to him for a long period of time.

His eyes tore back towards the girl.

_Shit._

A angry growl reverberated in his throat, as he exasperatedly slapped himself on the inside in frustration.

What was wrong with him? He'd never been this infatuated with someone before... No, it was usually the girls who went out of their way to try and strike up with the 'smokin' footballer.

So why this sudden change in scenario?

The boy fell back against his chair, and brought up a hand to rub away his headaches.

The Hyuuga had, for all that he knew, always been one of the most popular girls at school. What with those enormous... _things_ of hers! Whenever she walked around the campus, it was as if she held some kind of eye magnet in her chest; almost every head around her turned and almost every pair of eyes in those heads fell on her breasts. A few of them were gentlemanly enough to stare at her beautiful face instead.

For as long as Kiba remembered, he'd always been paired up with the girl; in the literal sense! Be it science-projects, clean-up-duties, football-screenings, or monitoring responsibilities; because of some inexplicable reason, whenever the Inuzuka had been chosen for something, the Hyuuga had been chosen as his partner.

Before long, he'd begun to see what the other boys at school saw in the white-eyed beauty... up close!

He'd seen the way she sighed and pressed her back when she was tired.

He'd seen the way she stuck out her lower lip when she was anxious.

He'd seen the way she smiled at him when she was happy.

And pretty soon, he'd seen himself with a crush on her. He'd begun to watch her when he thought she wasn't looking; he'd found himself lost in thoughts, while his eyes were pinned onto her; he'd woken from dreams about her on more than one occasion; and he'd found himself staring at her a _lot _recently.

He sighed, lazily flicking a finger at his pen.

Man, wasn't _this_ irritating.

* * *

Sakura walked up the corridor to her Chemistry class annoyedly, gazing at the talkative blonde beside her every once in a while. How Ino talked so much intrigued her beyond comprehension. She'd seen many mirthful and talkative girls, but this teen was another case completely.

The blonde had started to talk of some sort of amazing film she'd watched with Shikamaru over the weekend, and then... she'd just lost all ability to stop!

Sakura was pretty sure that she'd be able to beat even the most hardened fans of the production after all that she'd heard. So Ino had been enjoying a night alone with her crush, big deal! So why was it that she was feeling a mounting sensation of envy begin to eat away at her insides?

She narrowed her eyes, and sighed.

This was annoying.

A couple of weeks previously, she'd been in a sort of 'situation' with her _other _blonde friend. A situation which, like the majority of the ones the two had shared till then, had been awkward. Or at least, it had been so for the pink-haired girl.

She'd gone up to the apartment of the blonde guy to seek some mental solace. However, upon reaching said place, she'd seen the teen in a position which made her think that he was going out with some girl. Fortunately, the blonde had followed her when, after watching him in that position, Sakura had started off in the direction of the roof of his apartment building. After that, he'd conveniently managed to calm her down and lighten up the mood; proving to her that he was, in reality, still _single!_

However, that was not the thing that had been worrying her.

Thoughts of how she'd reacted upon seeing the blonde in that setting plagued her mind, making her lose sleep on occasion, and creeping up to her more frequently than not when she was at school.

She furrowed her eyebrows.

What was happening to her?

* * *

"Achoo!"

"See, the radiator _did _come in handy."

The Uzumaki sat on the couch, a blanket wrapped around him and a thermometer sticking out of his mouth. Facing him was his best friend, who presently sat upon to table in between the two couches of their apartment.

"S-Shut up, T-Teme," muffed out the blonde, his shivers increasing when he spoke.

The Uchiha opposite to him sighed, and narrowed his eyes at him. The two of them had skipped school that day, as the blonde had caught a terrible ague. When asked why, he'd said that it was only a natural thing. However, the Uchiha had his suspicions; how on earth could two-weeks' worth of ice-cream supply simply vanish from their refrigerator overnight!

"You need to loosen up," deadpanned the raven-haired guy, blinking at the blonde.

"Y-You need t-to stop sucking m-my c-cock!"

Sasuke sighed. The blonde was just too much at times.

Getting up swiftly from his rest, he gave Naruto a soft nod, before beginning to unbutton his shirt.

The blonde's eyes widened.

"T-The f-fuck? I'm s-straight!"

The Uchiha snapped his head back at the guy, his eyes widening as he realized what the blonde had just alluded to.

"No, you dumbfuck!" his face began to grow just as red as that of the fever-struck blonde, "I'm just gonna take a goddamn bath!"

"Oh."

The blonde sheepishly looked on at the Uchiha, as the latter slowly turned away from him; his eyes still wide, and shook his head, heading towards the towel rack. Upon reaching said rack, he pulled out the long white colored furry cloth he used, and turned in the direction of the bathroom, before giving the blonde another look.

"You need to cut down on Ramen, I'm pretty sure its messing with your brain."

The blonde snorted.

"Y-You need to c-cut down o-on f-fashion tv, t-that shit's m-making you g-gay."

_Blush._

Needless to say, the blonde gloated his victory, as he saw the reddened Uchiha furiously stomp out of the room. A grin tugged at his lips.

Maybe sick-leaves weren't so bad after all.

* * *

**AAAND THIS FANFICTION'S GOING ON HIATUS FOR A MONTH AND A HALF! SORRY, BUT MY PRINCIPAL HAS OFFICIALLY _ORDERED _US TO NOT USE OUR CELL PHONES UNTIL THE END OF THE FIRST SEMESTER, OR ELSE WE'LL BE MADE TO CLEAN THE 'THIRD FLOOR BATHROOM' AS COMMUNITY-SERVICE. **

**AND LET ME TELL YOU, THE 'THIRD FLOOR BATHROOM' IS A NASTY PIECE OF SHIT! :(**

**SO, LIKE ALWAYS, REVIEW! **

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Until next time! :( Don't forget to review! Who knows? I just might break school rules to write another chapter then! x3 I love being evil!**


	7. Sick Leaves and Projects

"Sick-leave?"

The blonde sweat-dropped.

If one were to look at the situation without any prior knowledge of the students involved, he would undoubtedly have partook in developing some sort of an out-of-place feeling, the risibility of the situation being the cause.

A pinkette glared daggers at a blonde, while a handsome teen with an emo hairdo stood by, passively watching as said blonde, whom the observer would probably take to be the 'emo-guy's enemy, which would in turn, completely contradict reality; for the blonde and the other male teen mentioned above, were but the best of friends.

The irony.

"S-Sakura C-Chan, What's with all the ang-AAA"

The blonde cowered and dodged, as the pinkette lashed at him with her devilish, albeit beautiful, nails. Not being able to catch her pray, the pinkette continued to the lash at the aforementioned blonde for sometime, while the latter dodged continuously, escaping his demise marginally everytime. It all led to the setting up of an episode, which could be called nothing short of being akin to a considerably funny comic-scene.

"Ba-ka, Do you have any idea what I went through because of you? We have yet to begin with our chemistry project, and the date of submission is just one freakin' week away!"

The pinkette didn't stop with her lashing whilst saying this. The project she was referring the blonde to was one which was given to them about six days prior to the blonde's falling ill. The class had been, like always, divided into groups of two; and the pinkette had had the misfortune of being paired with the blonde.

At that time, the blonde had taken the whole assignment lightly, saying that they had a week and a half to prepare their model, dismissing all sorts of protests from the pinkette's side. However, now, seeing that five days had already fleeted past, and they were still to commence with their work on the concerned project, the female teen's ire rose to unthinkable heights.

"We've six days to prepare, you idiot!"

The girl finally landed a blow on the blonde's head, sending the latter falling down onto the floor of the corridor they were presently in, very much in pain. Periodic whispers of agony escaped the boy from time to time, doing nothing but ticking the pinkette off to a larger extent.

"Baka-", the demonish girl advanced slowly towards the boy, calculatedly cracking her knuckles with every step she took, to enhance the blonde's agony.

"Stop."

Both of the students froze. Slowly turning their heads towards the voice, their facial expressions began to morph simultaneously into exactly opposite ones.

Naruto held an expression of extreme gratefulness, making the classic puppy-dog face with the tears by the eye's corners, as if to say, "_This bastard's seriously helping me? I was SO wrong about him! Hand me a tissue!"_

On the other hand, the pinkette's face went blank, as if to say, "_OMFGFHGHFHGHGF! He FUCKING TALKED TO ME? Shiiiit..."_

Sasuke stood carrying the perfect poker face, his right hand was stuffed into his pocket still, while with his left he was pointing at the pair in front of him. His eyebrow quirked.

"Don't try anything more, otherwise..."

The pinkette and blonde tensed, completely forgetting the one sided death match they were recently engaged in, and looked at the raven-haired boy, anxiously awaiting his completion of his sentence.

"...I'll report you."

_The heck?_

"Teme, you sonuvabitch-"

"Baka!"

_KICK!_

The Uchiha sighed. At least he'd tried.

* * *

**SECOND FILLER. I'LL START WRITING FROM TOMORROW! KISHIMOTO'S HURT ME BEYOND COMPREHENSION WITH 615, SO I'M BASICALLY LEAVING THE MANGA, AND JUST FOCUSING ON CREATING THE PERFECT NARUSAKU WORLD WITH FANFICS FOR NOW, AS ARE MANY OTHER NS FANS. HOPE YOU GUYS WILL KEEP READING THIS. **

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Review button's on the next line.**


	8. Poundings and Transfers

The blonde walked into the classroom with a rather gloomy expression, which was pleasantly surprising, considering the fact that he'd been on sick-leave for the past few days. An enormous lump was there on his scalp, reddened in all its glory, making it look comical; much against the wishes of the person carrying it. His encounter with the pinkette that morning, had been all but life-taking, and had definitely left him bare of all the wishes to attend classes he'd had in the morning.

He sighed, sitting down on the chair at the farthest corner of the room, and crashed his head down on the desk. His eyes flew over the room in every increasing panic, as he registered the people who were present in it, in his mind. There pinkette wasn't there yet, which was, in a way, heart-warming for him, seeing that he was running away from her, and somehow, she seemed to be exorbitantly adept at the art of catching her prey.

He sighed again.

_This shit is scary_.

He'd run away from the girl, after pulling the classic, '_Oh my gawd, there's a fuckin' SPIDER on you hair!'_ fake on her. However, now he was troubled by the minute sense of intuition he possessed; a thing which was presently giving him a hard time, by implying the imminent entrance of Sakura Haruno into the classroom, any minute then.

At that moment, it would have, in no way, been untrue for Naruto to have said that he'd have chosen drowning in a poop-filled-pool to being present at school.

He drummed his fingers against the side of his desk, while completely sticking the left-side of his face against the desk and closing his eyes. It had been plenty weird having Sasuke utter that _presumably _suspicious thing about him taking the two of them to the Old Hag's office if they did anything more.

And now there they were; having done a _lot _more than merely _more._

_God_, that sounded wrong.

He mentally scolded himself for having such utterly useless thoughts at a time as such; when his entire existence was in mortal danger. He was basically clueless as to _what_ he'd do, if she was to co-

"Thought you could *pant* run *pant* could ya?"

He was dead.

* * *

Shikamaru eyed the Uzumaki-wonder of Konoha High get pounded like there was no tomorrow by the pink haired devil of the same. To his side was Ino, who merely scrunched her eyes with every punch the girl threw the boy. It was sort of scary watching Sakura go into her all-out 'Rage-mode' like that. Mainly because it didn't bode well for her either, considering the fact that her discontent with whoever had messed her up would become the prime focus of her talks, and she'd have to bear with it.

"Poor Bastard."

Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement.

The blonde's screams were enough to give away the fact that he was being thrashed up to an extent which would undoubtedly have had killed anyone who didn't possess the blonde's ability of recovering.

"Sakura-chan! I'm sorry!"

They watched the pinkette stop in midst of delivering a blow to the blonde. She stood still like that, for a few moments, her eyes unreadable.

After that, she slowly drew her arm in, as her posture retracted, indicating something none of her friends had seen till then.

"O-Okay..."

The blonde stared at her, quite unbelieving of the whole situation himself. Shikamaru could tell that he was having an absolute mental breakdown at that moment, probably something in the lines of; '_This bitch half pounded me to Mars, and now just stops? I guess the teachers _were _truthful when they said 'Sorry' was a magic word! I'm such an idiot.'_

"I don't he's quite a poor bastard anymore, " he turned towards his _other _blonde friend.

Absurdly though, he found her smiling.

"Yeah," she nodded.

_Eh? What? 'Yeah'? Girls really are... well..._

The door to the class slid open again.

All four heads in the class turned towards the gate to it, as a brown haired man, with a scar running straight across his cheeks and nose, came striding in.

"Good mornin-The heck? What's with all the upturned chairs?"

Searching for an answer, his eyes skimmed over the faces of Ino and Shikamaru, before they landed upon the one of the pinkette's. From Sakura, it immediately descended to Naruto, who was kneeling on the ground, sporting the look of a lost puppy in the middle of nowhere.

He scowled.

"I really _do_ hate my job."

* * *

Sasuke wandered about the hallways, thinking about where everyone had vanished off to. The trademark scowl still occupied its place on his face, doing its job, and keeping his aloof-image in shape. It really bothered him, not being able to find someone to observe; seeing that lately he come to find 'observing' to be something he took particular interest in.

He exhaled.

It must have been the universe conspiring against him.

Turning sharply at the next corner, he found himself in the corridor that led to the library. Reading wasn't something he was particularly keen on doing, neither was it something he hated with a passion. It was just something he deemed had to be done when it had to be done.

This was, in particular the very reason why Sasuke Uchiha was never found at the Konohan Library. Because studying was never something that _had _to be done when examinations were 'knocking on the door'.

However, seeing that he'd got his first period off, owing to the absence of Kakashi Hatake at school on that day, he thought he might just go inside and find out what one felt while being inside the library.

He slowly began strolling up to the door to the library. Once there, he eyed the doorknob hesitantly, as if pondering what he might face in this 'never-explored-before-territory'.

After a few moments of careful contemplation, the Uchiha smirked downwards and shrugged. Everything had a first time anyway.

As soon as he'd opened the door, he found himself facing racks of books stacked up against the farthest wall, ahead of which, were empty tables. From his viewpoint, the entirety of the library was not visible, but he conjectured that it was quite enormous.

The librarian's counter, which was right next to him, was empty. Shizune probably hadn't thought that there'd be any student who'd come to the place this early in the morning.

Shaking his head, in an attempt to brace himself for what he was about to do, Sasuke ventured into the room, thinking of downright insane sayings, like Neil Armstrong's '_One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind',_ when his eyes suddenly fell upon something.

At the farthest table that he could see, was a girl with a book open in front of her, searching for something on her iTouch; the earplugs in her ears.

Sasuke squinted. Something about her struck him as familiar.

She had red hair.

His eyes widened.

"No way."

* * *

"Okay class, that will be all," said the black-haired woman, who sat on the chair at the head of the room.

The students got up, and filed out of the classroom, their voice increasing automatically as they did so.

Naruto looked straight ahead of him. He already had a detention to look _forward _to that day. He didn't want any more trouble; what with his plans of going to the bowling alley being crushed because of the minor incident that transpired in the morning.

He shook his head feverishly, trying to force the gloomy thoughts away, and welcome in something more sunshine-y. Something that'd-

"Naruto?"

He stopped in his tracks. It was _her _voice.

After ignoring him for the better half of the day, what could have possibly happened to the pinkette to make her talk to him again?

He slowly turned around.

"H-Hey, Sakura-chan."

He saw the pinkette look down at her shoes the moment he turned his eyes on her. What was with that?

"Uh, I-I'm sorry about the morning. I lost it," she muttered, her eyes still on her shoes, "I-I've been having a rough couple of days and, well-"

"Sakura-chan," his voice was warm and soft, "Forget it. You're allowed to have that kind of rage once in a while."

The pinkette's eyes widened, and she looked up to meet his ones.

"H-huh? I am?"

What was this? She'd never thought that the blonde Baka harbored this sort of mannerisms in him as well.

This was, in a weird way, romanti-

"Yeah, it's probably your time of the month, isn't it?"

Yeah, time of the mo- wait, _WHAT?_

The pinkette's eyes widened even more than before, as she looked him straight in the face, aghast.

Time of the month, _the hell _it was her _time of the month! _The little scoundrel!

"What the heck are you talking about you idiot?!"

Pouting, she turned, and speedily started to walk away, trying to put as much distance as possible between her, the blonde pervert.

Unfortunately for her, said blonde wasn't one to back away that easily.

"S-Sakura-chan, wait! I didn't mean to offend you or anything! Sorry!"

She gulped, momentarily halting. Her anger whiffed away from her, as if it was being sucked on by some sort of drain hole. She frowned, it wasn't quite _like _her to be prey to such sort of things. She'd been told that she was kind by many; however, she'd never imagined herself to be the type who forgave others the moment they uttered some word of apology.

The great Sakura Haruno, had become like _that?_

Her eyebrows knitted up.

A warm hand placed itself on her shoulders.

"Forgive me if I did something stupid. I didn't mean it, ya' know!"

The voice was soft, welcoming, and definitely not like the one of some fugitive.

She felt her lips' ends curve themselves.

Weirdly, she didn't hate this new aspect of her either.

* * *

"K-Kairi?"

"Sasuke!"

The red-head waved cheerfully at him from her table.

Unlike her, though, the Uchiha was having quite tormented thoughts. What was _she _doing at Konoha!? He hadn't considered her being a student at their school _once_. And that was saying something; he usually always thought about how pathetic the pathetic stranger would make his already pathetically pathetic life.

Still...

He walked up to her table, and sat down opposite her. He noted that her face looked shiny, complimenting her eyes, which were violet in color. Her red-hair was done to a side, to make her face more visible, Sasuke guessed. He didn't complain though, she looked pretty... _good_ in that.

_Dammit__!_

"Soo, surprised?"

Kairi's tone overflowed with mirth.

"Very."

Sasuke added his ultra-rare nod to emphasize the point.

Kairi laughed, throwing her head back, making her hair dance playfully. The Uchiha's eyes followed them in an entranced manner, latching onto every wayward curl that shook.

He gulped. This was... new.

"I joined the school today! Convinced dad that home schooling isn't the best option for a senior, you know what I mean?"

Sasuke choke-coughed. Transferred? _Transferred!_

He looked back at her face.

"Transferred?"

She smirked deviously.

"Happy are we?"

The Uchiha gulped again.

_Oh boy._

* * *

**SO! FINALLY WORKED UP A NEWIE! HOW'S IT!? LIKE IT? HATE IT? REVIEW! WROTE THE WHOLE THING _TODAY!_ AT ONE GO! Sorry for not working my ass off earlier! ANYWAY! TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS THINK OF THIS!**

**And I'm happy that you guys liked 'Say'. :D**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**BTW, don't forget to review! Keeps me motivated and boostens my speed! :D**


	9. Baka

**Author's note: Review a bit more please. I feel worthless otherwise. :\**

* * *

The pinkette looked up. It was still as beautiful as ever, the ceiling. In fact, it was, for all she fathomed, still a long time until she'd find herself able to pick out the faults of the place. Taking in the small details, she smiled a small bit, before facing the teen in front of her.

"So," she meted, flashing him a lopsided grin, "Let's begin?"

The blonde gave her a thumbs-up.

"Okay! Dattebayo!"

She chuckled, moving into the proper premises of the Uchiha-Uzumaki residence. It wasn't a normal call-in, that she was performing right now, neither was it some sort of profoundly serious ordeal that she wished to finish off. It was their chemistry project; something that was dangerously overdue for them.

Finding a comfortable position on the couch, Sakura seated herself, and placed the two pieces of stationary she'd carried along with her, on the table. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the blonde scoot over to the fridge and fumble with a couple of things, before pulling out something that looked yellow, and _very _suspicious.

She grinned, going back to settling out her materials. Naruto _did _have a weird way with food. Honest to god, she'd only known the guy for some months, and already, there had been the development of a tiny idea in her mind that told her _not _to question Naruto's eating habits, lest it lead to her losing her consciousness.

A snicker escaped her at her thought.

The blonde presently returned to the table, and laid down what he'd brought along on the same. Three packets of crisps, and a gigantic bottle of soft-drinks. Sakura felt her eyebrows raise; the stuff was straightforwardly neat, for all she cared. Grinning, she looked at the blonde, who merely shrugged; like it was only normal for him to feed himself such monstrous quantities of food.

Naruto grinned at her again.

"Proceed," he raised his arms- palms facing the ceiling, aiming at some sort of melodrama, "Scholarly Lady."

0-0-0

An hour later, the two of them were laughing.

"B-Baka!"

The pinkette clutched her stomach, almost doubling over, as the effect of what the blonde had said hit her full force. It amazed her to no end that he was able to share such a relationship with Sasuke. However, what _really_ befuddled her was how he managed to do so without dying. She'd always suspected that the Uchiha would kill anyone who tried to get _too _close to him, without a second's hesitation. But there was Naruto.

Sakura wiped a tear away. They were like the perfect image of 'brodom'.

"So you guys actually seduced two of Vegas' strippers into giving you shelter?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically.

"Yep, we actually did, even paid the two chicks for the night."

They blinked...

...and then cracked up again.

"That s-sounded _so _wrong!"

Sakura grasped the arm-rest nearest to her, and pressed it. Her entire body shook, her hair dancing around her face as she laughed. Tremors ran along her shoulder, and made it all seem surreal.

Naruto gazed at her. His laughs lowered in terms of their loudness.

"You're seriously pretty, ya' know."

The pinkette froze. Slowly turning towards Naruto, she saw him looking at her with an _unfamiliar _sort of gaze. It wasn't the usual sunny thing he drowned her with, neither was it the hungry look she'd seen most of the students at school shoot her. It was... an _admiring _one.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She liked it.

She gulped as she saw the blonde rise, and instantly began to picture numerous _weird _scenarios, each involving the two of them in... complicating circumstances. A feverish shiver ran through her inside, as she all but killed herself mentally, trying against herself to make her head turn; to tear her eyes away. Her pulse rose with every step the blonde took, incapacitating her; leaving her paralyzed.

_Is he going to- _

Naruto bent down on the carpet, stationing himself on one knee, and gave her a mirthful gaze. He softly stuck a hand out towards her, merely increasing her paranoid mental-self's confusion.

_Silence._

"Let's go and eat someplace."

_Oh._

A weak smile creeped onto Sakura's lips. She considered the hand the blonde had offered her, the turmoil inside bubbling down, and softly nodded.

Her left hand crept into his.

"That'd be good."

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha found himself flabbergasted by what he saw. His eyes widened to a point where they resembled miniature moons, as they gobbled up whatever expanse of the apartment he was inside was offered to him. A distant corner of his brain, he could have sworn, whistled. She lived _here_?

He gulped, completely going against the Konohan maxim which stated that Uchihas never did so.

Red eyes fleeted towards violet ones.

"You live here?"

Kairi let her head perform a nervous nod. She'd become accustomed to such sorts of reactions from her guests a long time back; however, that didn't in any manner, imply that Sasuke's reaction was something she counted among them. Unusually though, a smile crept to her face.

She nodded.

"Like it?"

The Uchiha grinned.

"Very."

Kairi returned the grin.

"Pleased to know that."

* * *

"N-Naruto?" Sakura gulped, pointedly looking at her surroundings, "What is this place?"

The blonde flashed her a smile.

"My favorite classy-restaurant."

About half an hour earlier, after proposing the idea of the two of them wrapping it all up by going to a place to eat, Naruto had handed her a black chained case. Upon her suspicious inquisition about the case, the blonde had answered her with a simple 'Wear it, it'll suit'cha,' and pushed her into his Uchiha-roommate's room; hurriedly running off into his own, to avoid any further confrontations.

Upon opening the case, Sakura had found an exceptionally pretty dress, completely in black. She'd had her suspicions about where Naruto had got it from, but had decided to not question him about it, fearing that the answer would probably leave her sanity scarred for the rest of her life. She'd put on the dress, and, after casting a swaying glance over Sasuke's room, found a sort of emo make up kit.

Needless to say, that'd made her belch. However, it had provided her with some basic things to touch up her face with.

After finishing her dressing up, Sakura had stepped outside; to find that Naruto's door was unlocked, and very much empty. Walking along the small way to the living room, Sakura had just begun to say his name out loud, when she'd seen him, in his _gear._

A black tuxedo. Greased hair. Cleansed face. Blue Eyes. And a lingering fragrance.

She'd have shamelessly admitted that the boy looked gorgeous just then [In all its platonic nature but!].

And now... they were inside _Raikado's. _The _costliest, trendiest, and most sought after _restaurant in the entirety of the elemental municipality.

She sharply intook some air, a nagging feeling creeping into the crevasses of her mind.

"N-Naruto," she started, gulping as she turned towards the blonde, "This feels eerily like a-"

_Date, _Her mind finished.

The blonde noticed the uncertain stretch in her voice. She was uncomfortable with the setting.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," he said, flashing her a grin and thumping his chest for good measure, "I make this place seem like a friggin' pigsty party!"

His grin was intoxicating; the pinkette relaxed.

A few minutes later, she was sitting in a booth she hadn't noticed at first; because it basically occupied an entire room! Her eyes surveyed the place, halting at the numerous hilarious posters on the wall. There was this weird panda that kept coming up in every two posters, that caught Sakura's eyes. Knitting her eyebrows, she tried to guess at what it might be; however, she failed, and soon turned to the blonde for help.

"What's with the weird-ass panda?"

Naruto, who was sipping his glass of water, waiting for their food to be served, looked up, and the corners of his lips began to quiver. Softly removing his glass from his lips, he continued to look at the poster of the panda he'd landed his eyes upon.

"_That's_ not a panda."

Sakura frowned, and slowly turned back to double check the thing. Nope, still the same; white ass, black legs.

"What do you mean, Baka? That's a freaking pa-"

"That's Sasuke."

_Ba-dump_.

_What?_

Naruto turned to face her fully, "Remember the Vegas thing? Yeah, so a guy got us drunk. He was this creepy old guy, who carried weed in his pocket, and gave us a canteen of tequila each, when we asked him for water. So what happened was; we drank that shit in a go each, and _then_, _before _the stripper episode," Naruto pointed at the posters, "Sasuke got a _weird_ longing to help with wildlife photography."

Sakura blinked. And blinked again.

Sasuke was once dressed as a panda.

"H-Holy shit!"

Her laughs echoed through the room; a distant happiness settled over her at the fact that the place was basically sound proof. She'd never thought that she'd laugh so much at something hilarious _Mr. Cold Hearted Badass_ did. However, that stood corrected as she nearly cried tears of mirth, images of the Uchiha-prodigy dancing to 'Gangnam Style' in a panda outfit floating in her mind.

A couple of minutes' craziness later, Sakura was back to being herself, even though a smile still lingered on her lips. She look at her blonde friend, as the latter nodded at the waiter who'd knocked on their 'booth''s door, signalling for him to come in.

The guy _did _look good, she noted. He was someone who'd got a pretty large base of fangirls chasing after him in the short period of time he'd spent in Konoha, and yet, he seemed utterly oblivious to his near immense popularity. She'd long since deemed that he wasn't the flashy type of guy; rather, he took pleasure in allowing others to act flashy in front of him, just to compliment their happiness. He wasn't the typical badass; rather, he was a friendly jokester. He wasn't the ethereal hot even; he was the bedroom-headturning-handsome, instead.

Her lips bent, giving way to an involuntary smile.

He was pretty goo-

_Wait a second_, she thought, frowning, as a sudden realization dawned upon her.

She waited for the waiter to leave, and then, shot a question at the blonde, "Why do you guys have a booth with your pictures?"

Naruto seemed taken aback.

Then, his eyes slowly returned to their normal mischievous state.

"Sasuke and I, sorta own 20% of this place," he said, shrugging, "We donated a lot, when the place was gonna open. The other owners said they were having budget problems and stuff, so..."

He shrugged again.

Sakura merely gaped at him.

_Partial owner of Raikado's?_

_Holy shit! _

She poked his forehead, a weak grin covering her face, "What else are ya hiding in you, Baka?"

Naruto smiled.

"Dunno myself."

They sat like that for a while, while their food lay in front of them. Then, Naruto suddenly looked away, and began to place servings of food onto Sakura's plate, eerily keeping quiet as he did so.

However, the pinkette merely gazed at him, noting the brilliantly simple facade he carried about himself, as she did so. She wasn't exceptionally rich. Heck, there was basically no one she _knew _at Konoha, who was as rich as the guy beside her, and his best friend. However, there was still the occasional boast escaping the mouth of everyone of the school goers, herself included. And yet, there he was, in front of her; so jovial, and undoubtedly uncaring of the immensely desirable character he possessed.

"Don't you every feel like speaking about... about this?" She said, moving her head from side to side, pointing at his Raikado-owning, as she graciously accepted the plate he offered her, "Eh, Baka? Never feel like showing off, even a little?"

Naruto looked at her eyes for a second, a momentary serious taking hold of his eyes, before softly smiling at her.

"I'd rather be a unpopular idiot who everyone acts real in front of; than an idolized hero whose character demands satisfactory compliments, however hypocritical."

Sakura felt a light feeling sprout up in her chest.

She smiled, patting her forehead.

"Baka..."

* * *

**Annnnnnnother chapter! :D How's THIS? LIKE IT? HATE IT? PLEASE REVIEW!**

**OKAY SERIOUSLY, PLEASE REVIEW A BIT MORE[I got only 7 reviews for the last chapter, A LOT lower that what it started out as]. I'LL BE LEAVING ON THE TWENTY FIFTH, AND I FRANKLY WISH TO COMPLETE THE STORY BY THEN. I PROMISE TO WRITE A CHAPTER A DAY, GIVEN THAT YOU GUYS GIVE ME SUFFICIENT REVIEWS. [I'm planning to add six more chapters to this. Ending with Prom and all.] OTHERWISE, YOU GUYS WILL HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER FOUR MONTHS FOR THIS STORY TO BE COMPLETED. BECAUSE THE NEXT TIME I'M GONNA RETURN FROM SCHOOL, WILL BE IN MAY, FOR MY SUMMER VACATIONS. AND WITH ENOUGH REVIEWS, I'LL WRITE 5000 WORDED CHAPTERS AFTER THIS.**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Review, please? Peace.**


	10. Tests and Dates

**Author's note: Hehehe. ****Wasn't able to proof-read this. Feel free to tell me about where I've gone wrong! Let's Start! :D**

* * *

Sasuke's eyes flew over the paper he held in his hands. A quick analysis later, he shrugged; it was just as he'd anticipated.

Easy as shit.

Clicking his pen open, with the ever-present style he possessed, he began ticking the answers at a tremendous speed. _A, B, D, B, C, D... _If the students seated around him were witnessing the Uchiha-prodigy's flair for the first time, they would've undoubtedly developed either of two conceptions; for one, they might have considered him to be a genius, in keeping with his actual character; or, for another, they might have made the mistake of thinking that the poor bastard had lost it, and was vainly attempting to get his luck to do the work for him.

However, that wasn't the case with those around him in reality.

Sakura busied herself with completing her paper.

Ino busied herself with completing her paper.

Shikamaru had already completed his paper.

Naruto was looking at Sasuke with a flabbergasted expression, as if to say, "_I thought we were friends, damn you!"_

Ten minutes later, the raven-haired boy was sitting on his chair, having completed marking his answers, and re-checking his answer sheet. An occasional glance was all that he needed to shoot Naruto, to tell the blonde an answer. Thus far, the Uchiha could proudly claim to have given said blonde thirty-five answers correctly; ensuring the guy's scoring of a _very _decent grade; an A-.

Now, he could have fun.

_Forty! _

The Uchiha's gaze flew back to his answer sheet.

"_Who said the following; "_Stars hide your fires, let not light see my deep and dark desires," ?"

An eyebrow quirked. How someone possibly read _Macbeth _without knowing the answer to that, was just beyond him. Internally shrugging in dismay, the Uchiha turned around, mentally preparing himself for a soon to be hilarious joke.

_D._

The Uchiha watched Naruto look at the referenced option._  
_

_Jack Sparrow._

A tense moment followed.

Then the guy grinned like an idiot, and marked it.

Sasuke's mind laughed a small sardonic laugh, relishing in the fact that it'd managed to get the guy to pull a sadistic prank on his best friend. After all, evil was evil. Uchihas _liked _evil.

* * *

Kiba Inuzuka couldn't believe it, his mind blatantly refusing to take it all in.

_She _had talked to him. And he hadn't even been the one to initiate the conversation.

All he'd done was stand by the locker-room, and gaze; none too fixedly, at the invitations on the notice board, asking the senior-year students to join the various committees that'd be forming soon. When the occasional girls passed by, after wishing him, the dog-lover had had enough mind control to wish them back. However, his mind still roamed over more of the _important _problems he'd been having.

Prom was two months away.

He'd gulped; the idea of the dance invoking images of a certain purple haired girl in his head. Another gulp had lead to his throat's contraction. _Hinata..._

"Kiba-kun?"

His eyes had widened to a size wherein it had undoubtedly resembled a pair of the cafeteria's onigiri.

Slowly pivoting his head towards the speaker; Kiba'd found the exact person who'd been the most recent center of his thoughts. Another gulp. He'd inwardly frowned; it was unsightly, Kiba Inuzuka was the loud-mouthed, cassanova-like stud who played as the midfielder for the school's soccer team. _Not _some deranged idiot who went about losing the ground beneath his feet every time he met some bimbo.

However; he'd never categorize _this _girl as 'some bimbo'. Not ever.

"Hinata," he'd nodded.

"W-well, do you want to finish off the last physics project today?"

Physics project.

He'd nodded again, "Sure."

And Hinata had smiled; chirping a small 'Thank you, be seeing you,' before walking away.

Presently, Kiba sighed.

_Stupid hormones._

* * *

"Kairi!"

Sakura looked at Naruto familiarize with the red-headed girl like they'd been friends since infancy. The girl had slapped him once on the back, and chirped out a quick 'How _you _doin'?', before sitting down beside Sasuke, opposite to the two of them. There were only the four of them at the table that day; the rest having had been caught up in some sort of work or the other. There were only _four _of them. And yet, the pinkette's brain was splitting apart like an overused piece of machinery.

A couple of minutes earlier; she'd been praising the 'bravado' which Sasuke had shown by gifting Naruto an A- in English Literature. Twenty-one; that had been the number of compliments she'd shot him, and the exact number of 'Hn's he'd replied back with. However, she'd deemed that it was significantly better than the 'no-talking' stance the Uchiha had maintained against her for god-knows-how-long.

Following that small array of praises and 'Hn's, Naruto had, much to Sakura's initial dismay, yelled at the prodigy for giving him the wrong answers from the fortieth question onward; something to which Sasuke's reply had been;

"Jack Sparrow was during the Victorian era, Dobe. That's nearly two hundred years after Shakespeare had _died_!"

Naruto huffed, "How's the fact that the old bum kissed mother nature's butt goodbye to effect your giving me an answer?"

This was precisely around the time when Sakura had begun readying herself for a strike aimed at the blonde's head; and when the Uchiha had gone all out and started insulting said blonde.

It was also the exact moment when Naruto had spotted _her_.

And now Sakura was forced to watch the blonde beside her engage the red-head in a conversation focusing on Ramen; something that Sakura had learnt, over the past two months' time, Kairi quite loved herself.

Occasionally, she caught Sasuke shooting a momentary glance at the girl, who'd not spoken a word in his direction after the Uzumaki-Sunshine had usurped the Uchiha's position of being the one of girl-conversation-focus.

"Don't you just love the new pork chops Ichiraku's been adding to their non-vegetarian noodles?" asked Kairi, smacking her pink-colored lips in dreamy reminiscence.

Naruto quickly got caught up in a sort of trance.

"Juicy, _Juicy _legs, shining in the oil, making me just want to," the blonde bit his lower lip, and narrowed his eyes, his tone shrinking into a husky one, "_Eat _it."

Sakura gulped; her brain fuzzily landing on the fact that there was something in the manner that the sapphire-eyed-boy had spoken, that was... _new_.

_Eat it._

New, and _very _smex- languid!

Halting her mental trail of thoughts to a screeching stop; Sakura caught herself blushing. What had she been _thinking _about? Shaking her mental-self furiously; she tried, and regained, control of her thinking faculties, and tried to find a process of emancipating herself of the boredom that'd enveloped her, and wiggle her way into the conversation.

However, her mind, for the first time in her life, was unable to provide her with a suitable answer.

Thus, at the next moment, she didn't have much of a clue about what she was doing when she suddenly shot a question at the Uchiha in front of her.

"How much of the physics syllabus have you completed?"

Quite shockingly, this time, Sasuke didn't act like his usual self and ignore conversation.

"Almost everything; Sound is practically the only bit I have left."

Quite caught up; and daring, the Haruno decided to propel the conversation forward. A vague thought about how the verbal chit-chat the two people beside her had engaged themselves in had died out, slowly registering itself in her mind.

"That's exactly the one I'm left to complete as well! Want to do it together?"

Her mind reveled in the fact that the blonde and the Itogawa girl had nearly _stopped _with their Ramen-centered talk. However, what she didn't have much time to think on that, as the Uchiha smirked at her, and nodded cockily.

"You know what, Haruno? That's not _that _bad an idea either. A study-date."

_Silence._

Triumphantly turning to face the blonde beside her; the green slowly receding from her mind, Sakura's ears caught hold of something.

"So, you free to go to Ichiraku's tonight?" Naruto spat, his smile a line between fury and cheer.

Her eyes widened.

Was that what she _thought _it was? Was Naruto _actually _asking the mayor's daughter, _out? _They didn't even _know _each other, surely she would refu-

"How can I possibly refuse such a great ramen critic as _you?_" smiled Kairi, her gaze momentarily flitting towards Sasuke, and morphing into a glare, before flying back to Naruto's and warming up.

The pinkette's heart skipped a beat. Had they just agreed to go out on a -

"Great," Naruto smiled at her, bringing his right hand up a small bit, and making a thumbs-up.

Kairi smirked devilishly.

"Its a date."

* * *

Beneath many a swirling ramen-noodle-shaped-light, sat two seventeen year olds. One wore a casual black blazer over a white T-shirt, and had blonde hair, which, as expected of him on a _date_, was greased back, with a few wayward locks falling straight onto his face. His pants were azure blue in color, and fitted him quite well. On his nose, mere centimeters from his eyes, rested a pair of rim-less spectacles.

Opposite to him, sat a girl, whose red-hair had been masterfully held up into a delicate up-do that gave a few strands the allowance of falling own; artistically caressing the sides of her face. Her purple eyes stood out because of the strand-less dress she wore; another thing which was of a purplish shade. Big round earrings adorned her ears; standing out, and adding an elegant charm to her face.

Needless to say, they were the center of attraction of every person in the ramen-bar; single, _and _committed.

"So Itogawa," chuckled the blonde, contemplating the menu he held in his hands, "What'cha want?"

The girl smirked at her surname, and laughed a devilish laugh.

"What you wanted to so badly _eat _this morning, Uzumaki?"

She received another laugh in response.

About a couple of minutes later, the two of them had placed an order for two bowls of Pork-and-Miso Ramen, and were sitting on their respective couches, gazing intently at the ceiling above.

"So, how long have ya been chasing Teme?"

The sudden question broke her out of her reverie. Snapping her head down, she found the blonde teen looking intently at her; his arms on the table; supported by their elbows, and his hands clasped in front of his lips. She felt her lips begin to color.

"W-What?"

He chuckled, separating his hands, and placing them on the table; a smile conquering his lips.

"Sasu_ke!"_ He said, emphasizing on the last syllable, "How long have you been after him?"

Kairi blinked once; and then blinked again. Her mind was stunned into silence. She'd heard a lot about the Uzumaki-wonder being dumb; however, the manner in which he was confronting her about her emotional status, egged her to think otherwise. She pondered what she should do for a moment.

After that, she sighed resignedly, and placed one of her own hands on the table, grasping one of the salt-shakers.

"The inter-school English fest, I guess."

Naruto smiled inwardly, as memories of how he'd irritated the Uchiha that day floated back to him.

"You guys would make a smexy couple," he judged, grinning, "A smexy couple indeed!"

Kairi felt her cheeks color up; and herself rendered incapable of voicing a coherent response to Naruto's comment.

About ten minutes later, the two feel back, having finished three bowls of ramen apiece, and smirked at each other.

"So how long have you and Haruno been into each other?"

The blonde was extremely taken aback by the question. To the point that he choked on thin air.

"W-What blasphemy do you speak woman?" He uttered, blue eyes wide with surprise.

Kairi smirked, "Oh come _on, _tell me damn you! I _know _how the two of you have the hots for each other! And besides," she shrugged, "I gave you plenty of yummy stuff with the Sasuke thing. Now I deserve payback."

For a moment, Naruto looked resilient; eyes misty, and lips a thin line.

Then, he just fell back more, and sighed.

"_I've _been into her from the moment we met," he declared, sapphire irises softening, "She's... amazing. Her smile's brilliant when she's happy. Her eyes get cloudy when she's sad. She pouts, and punches me sometimes; when I irk her up a tad _too _much," he grinned, "But still. She's Sakura-chan. She's awesome."

Kairi smiled wider, "Amen to that, Mr. corny pants. So why don't you ask her out?"

Naruto's eyes flew towards hers, and stayed there. For a moment, he didn't say anything.

Then, he merely sighed again; a dark-calm settling on his eyes.

"How _can _I? _She _doesn't even _think _of me in that way."

The red-head continued to look at him for a couple of minutes, maintaining the silence he'd allowed to settle over them.

And then, just shook her head; falling back into her own seat.

_You both are just too blind to realize it yet._

* * *

**Annnnnnnnother chapter! Thankee for the reviews! They've helped! A LOT! Please review again, me hearties! [Couldn't proof-read, sorry!]**

**Kishimoto's restored a bit of my faith with 616, by trolling NaruHina; but lets wait and watch, with the fingers crossed. [Keep Calm, and Support NaruSaku]**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Scroll down, and leave a review! You know you want to! And, the faster you do so, the faster I update!**

**[Given I receive sufficient reviews, I'll update tomorrow itself!]**


	11. Confusions And Gulps

**Author's note: Hehehe.**** Let's Start! :D**

**Another thing; Hinata, does NOT love Naruto in this fic. So, yeah.**

* * *

Sakura tried to ignore the splitting headache that was in the process of overwhelming her mind. A frown marred her usually sunny features, as she walked along the hall-way she was in. It wasn't normal, for her to feel something like the emotion that was enveloping her then. And it was even _more _unusual for her to _think _in the way she was then.

Anywhere she went, a green color threatened to envelop her eyes; and conquer the rest of her physicality. It was the treacherous sort of green; the uncommon sort; a kind she'd not had the occasion of feeling since... well...

She scowled.

Since Sasuke Uchiha had waltzed into her life a year ago.

It had been of a natural sort; her feelings. A hot new boy had transferred to school; a boy for whom most of the girls the school had to offer, had fallen. Sakura had merely deemed it courtesy to check out this _smexy pile of awesome _for who he was.

And checked him out she had.

It had been wondrous; the moment. She'd felt a gushing, and then a little rushing, following which, she was practically able to _see _her face blush. A few skipped heart-beats, and a couple of long gulps later; Sakura had decided on something. Something extremely crucial.

She'd decided that she'd fallen in love with the Uchiha prodigy.

This feeling had driven her throughout the past year; as she had constantly looked up ways in which she could make herself better. She'd embarked upon a fitness journey; transforming herself from a petite teenager, to a ruthless and athletic adolescent. She'd went through various dermatology treatments; forcing away each of the small little imperfections she'd thought she had. She'd forced herself to work excessively on her study material, and managed to level up her IQ to its very extremes.

And then, well, as one would have guessed... Haruno Sakura had quickly become the most desired girl to ever have walked through the doors of Konohagakure High.

However, that hadn't led to any developments in the Uchiha's behavior with her. She'd tried her best to get to know the mysterious, and insurmountably handsome, guy. She'd flown past the hurdles of compliments, and confessions, that had been shot at her. Discarded all the envious looks of her female rivals-in-love. Been heedless to the vague sense of mind of hers that'd told her that she was being stupid; that her feelings were the sort hormonal teenage girls experienced every now and then; that it was all frivolous and superfluous.

Unfortunately for her, that had still not left any impact on the feelings she held for him.

She'd not felt bad; but merely been even more determined in her task of winning over the affections of the Uchiha.

However, sometime later, that had just _not _felt the same. Her primary contestant at _war_, and, incidentally, best friend, Ino Yamanaka, had had the gradual senselessness, as she had deemed, of falling out of love with the Uchiha prodigy. A certain Nara male had crept into his place; although Sakura had failed to see why. Sasuke was so... handsomer, and... _stuff! __  
_

When she'd expressed her inability of understanding why the blonde hotness had let her passions for the Uchiha die; the girl had merely sighed, and turned towards her with a distant look on her face. Then, in a moment Sakura had not quite understood then, she had told her that she'd see. Maybe not _then_, but _someday _when _someone _came along; she'd see.

Needless to say, the Haruno had called her a demented bitch, and left her with quite an angry and confused expression.

That was how things had been progressing for the past year; until, well...

_He'd _come into her life.

Just the thought of it all made her want to punch something. Punch something with all the strength she possessed. Demolish it and just- burn it and do all those nasty sorts of thing she'd imagined up, to it!

She hadn't thought much about _him _at first; categorizing him as another one of those stand-outs; who'd worked endlessly, and had finally achieved a certain degree of popularity; even though the 'certain level of popularity' of the blonde was currently an incomprehensible one.

Then he'd began to grow on her; the walks to school he'd accompanied her on; the awkward moments they'd shared in his apartment; the few times he'd jokingly asked her out; only to receive a gigantic punch in the gut when he'd finished. Then, suddenly things had started to become vague; she'd accompanied him to a weirdly classy restaurant, learnt a thing or two about how the blonde-wonder's life_ wasn't _as perfect as it seemed.

She'd warmed up to him. And done it in a surprisingly short period of time.

And then, a month ago, he'd just gone, and _asked _the Itogawa girl _out_.

_That's _when her present state of mind had taken her over. When the _green _had suddenly began to fill itself into her life; quite obnoxiously, and malevolently. Soon, she'd caught herself pouring more tea into her cup than required; staring indefinitely at weird-assed things; growing anxiously fond of the absurd shade that was orange. And finding an ever surmounting increase in her ire.

_Naruto._

In the plus side of it all; Sasuke Uchiha had asked her out.

However, spending time with him, was, quite to her surprise, just _not _as fun as spending time with _him_.

She gulped, unfamiliar with the things that were plaguing her mind.

"Sakura-chan?"

Her eyes widened, as she turned around, and saw a particular blonde standing behind her, hands slack in his pockets.

"Baka," she spat, narrowing her eyes at him, "What are _you _doing here?"

He knitted his eyebrows, confused.

"Uh, going to the café?"

He pointed a wavering finger in the direction of the same, but quickly brought it down, when the pinkette shot him a poisonous look.

Her mental-state threatened to wreck; and she had to take small breaths to calm herself out.

Then, she gulped; an unexpected snap echoing through her mental peace.

"Come with me?"

* * *

Shikamaru Nara, quite confusedly looked at the blonde girl walking by his side. The muffled out-cry his mind gave at the suggestion the latter had uttered a few moments previously, clogged his thinking faculties, and rendered him incapable of producing an intelligible reply. Clumsy in his manner; he drew a lengthened breath, and then, idiotically, stared at the girl.

"What?" He asked, his voice unusually stupid.

The blush on her face brightened; and she scowled, a gulp making her throat contract.

"W-will you go to p-prom with me?"

Shikamaru blinked.

"What?"

The blonde glared daggers at him; her breaths drawing out to reduce the ridiculously angry emotions she felt at that moment.

"Just answer me, dammit!"

The Nara gulped. This was Ino Yamanaka; one of the hottest girls on the campus, fantasy of most jocks, among others, _asking _him out. To Prom.

He gulped again.

"U-uh, y-yeah, I guess."

Ino nodded; the blush still enveloping her facial features. An uncommon biting of the lower lip was done by her; indicating that she was _probably _not going to recover from her flustered state soon. Understanding her situation, and the circumstances that it could lead to, if she didn't adopt any measures; the girl raised a trembling hand, and pointed indefinitely at some point behind her. A muffled croak was heard in her voice, as she spoke again.

"I guess, I-I'll be going now."

Shikamaru nodded, still quite disbelieving of the entire incident, and watched, as the blonde slipped over cement, whilst walking towards... well, wherever.

A grin flew over his face.

_Now _that's _not troublesome._

* * *

Sasuke Uchiha wasn't one who was usually seen 'keeping a close eye' on anyone. It went against the hardcore rules he'd built up regarding his character.

Not to mention, his pride had suffered a tremendous blow when he'd begun the task he was presently undertaking.

However, despite the various sorts of shortcomings that his mind thought of, every second; he found himself quite unable to pull away from it.

His gaze flicked to the girl; a frown marring his usually disaffected features.

_What a pain._

He sighed, his eyes, quite against his will, latching onto the hypnotizing sway that her hips performed. Slowly, he tore his seeing faculties away, and looked up; to catch sight of the brilliantly perfect updo that held long red locks together. The slim-fit shirt she wore, hugged her body tight, and showed off the masterfully crafted body she possessed.

The Uchiha found himself gulping.

"What's up?"

He stopped in his tracks, and looked up; to find the red-headed girl's unwavering gaze on him. His brain didn't help him out of the situation, for once; instead leaving him to fend off on his own, probably muttering something in the lines of, '_You pathetic little bastard_', in its sardonic little language.

"Uh..."

"Yeah?" He watched, as she raised her left arm, and poised it on her hip. The mild sense of thought he still possessed, processed the fact that the slightest hint of excitement played on her voice.

"Uh, I-I..," the Uchiha gulped, finally rearing himself up, and looking the girl straight in the eye, "I was thinking that we could complete the home-science project today?"

The girl smirked, impishly starting at him, "Could it be that Mr. Prodigy _actually _wants to spend time with Kairi Itogawa?"

Sasuke laughed emptily, barely controlling the embarrassed rush he felt inside.

"You wish."

The girl; Kairi, returned the laugh, and then smiled at the raven-haired teen.

"Sure."

* * *

Naruto gulped audibly when he heard the door behind him close with an exceptionally big noise. Slowly turning around, a suspicious feeling taking hold of his mind, he found the pinkette that was Sakura Haruno standing in front of the aforementioned door, looking down, with an evil shade settled over her eyes. Inwardly whimpering, he tried, and failed, to anticipate what she was trying to do.

Was she going to kill him?

"B-Baka?"

His eyes widened at the uncommon stammer in her voice. Looking at her more keenly then, he found a slight tremble in her stance; unlikely and _not _in sync with the monstrous and confident aura that usually emanated from the pinkette. Quite unceremoniously, he yelped, when he saw her shoot a glance at him.

"Y-yeah?" He spoke, a stammer finding its way to his voice as well. He continued his expedition of trying to gauge the girl's intentions, as his eyes nervously flitted up and down her posture; so far, he'd been unsuccessful.

For her part; the pinkette looked _nervous_, and quite measurably so. Lithe in her manner, she shot two wavering eyes at the blonde, trying to make her mind spill what it'd wanted to ask in the first place; that, however, went to vain, for her mind, she understood, had had all intelligence swiped out of it, for what seemed like an indefinite period of time.

Thus, she tried her luck.

"W-What did the d-dates feel like?" She wanted to murder herself. A furious blush enveloped her face, as she thought about how wonderful it would be for her to turn into a mouse, and wiggle away from the classroom.

Naruto blinked. Did she just-

_No way._

"Erm, what, Sakura-chan?"

She gulped, none too inaudibly. Was he deaf? Or just torturous?

"W-what's Kairi like?" She found herself muttering instead.

Naruto raised an eyebrow; this time he'd been extra cautious in trying to catch a strong hold of her words. Therefore, there was no possibility of misunderstanding the fact that Sakura Haruno... was asking him about to spill information about his love-life.

He bit his lip, contemplating the answers he could reply with.

Unsurprisingly though, he chose what most would have deemed the stupidest one.

"U-Uh, she's great," he nodded, looking up as if he tried to remember something, "She's intelligent, caring, and well, considerably prett-"

"I _get _it," the pinkette spat, clenching her jaw as she did so. In 'sooth', she was quite surprised herself; she didn't exactly understand the reason why she was acting in the way she was. Neither did her mind give her anything to placate her ever increasing sense of self-consciousness. Shooting an angry glance at the blonde she willed her desperate self to speak again.

"A-are you two a c-couple, now?"

Naruto gave her a confused look, before shaking his head, "No, we aren't, like, boyfriend-girlfriend; if that's what you mean, ya' know."

Sakura considered his statement, and rolled it over in her mind a couple of times, before suddenly, she blurted something out...

"Then why do you fucking _pig _around in front of her?"

...something that quite shocked her, and caused her to stare directly at the blonde, the intensity of what she'd said slowly sinking in.

"Excuse me?" He asked, knitting his eyebrows together, as he tried to wiggle out meaning in what she'd said. A shocked expression took over his face, and his stare widened.

Sakura gulped, "I-I'm sorry."

Naruto furrowed his brows at her. If this was what he thought it was...

Sakura looked down shamefacedly, an enormous blush enveloping her face completely. She shook, unable to comprehend the state of her nerves. It wasn't her usual self that made her do things of this sort. And it definitely wasn't because of some kind of sickness she'd taken a hold of. This was... was she feeling...

_Jealous?_

She internally cringed at the word. Haphazardly raising her face to look one last time at Naruto; she decided upon something.

"Bye!"

Shuffling at a tremendous speed; she basically broke open the door of the class, and shot outside; one name flying across his mind.

_Ino._

Staring at the place the girl had been mere seconds ago; Naruto found himself surprisingly confused. Comprehension was a far off wish, as he tried to at least _sort _out the multitude of expressions the girl had shot at him.

"Must be her time of the month," he decided finally, scrunching his eyes shut, and doing his trademark scratch-of-the-head.

A thought flit across his mind, as he finally started to move out of the classroom.

_How many times did she _have _'times of the month' anyway?_

* * *

**_I've been pretty sick for the past couple of days, so I'm not sure how this turned out. Anyways, hope you guys liked it. :) _**

**_~THA musIc GuY_**

**_Review please! And I'll update faster. 3 more chapters to go! I guess. :D_**

**_Please review. Otherwise I'll drink Cola and stuff, and get fat. And my fatness will put a stop to my writing. As I'll probably die. 'Coz Fuck Logic. :P :D_**


	12. Ogling

**Author's note: Hehehe.**** Let's Start! :D **

**I HAVEN'T PROOF READ THIS. AND I'M TOO FRIGGING TIRED RIGHT NOW! AND BEARS ARE SMEXY SHIT! **

* * *

Sakura looked around the room inattentively. A cup of coffee rested on the table in front of her; already cooled down to a considerable extent. Her emerald eyes stopped their travel, and slowly went down to cast the cup a glance. It was pretty unsightly; her state. Especially since she was skipping school.

She sighed irritably.

Turning around, she hoisted her left arm, and pulled a notebook out of the shelf in front of her. It stayed in her hands for a few moments; while she tentatively contemplated what her next move should be. A couple of moments' worth silence followed.

Pink eyebrows quirked.

Tossing the notebook aside, she walked past the table and out of the kitchen. Her eyes narrowed in a squirmish manner; her mind trying to defeat the building headache in it. A long day is what it would all turn out to be in the end. A _long _day, and a pretty unhealthy one at that; at least for her mental-self, considering the emotional 'trauma' that should be waiting to declare war against it.

She frowned.

_Prom is a week away_.

An agitated moan escaped her.

Tsunade; her _guardian, _and the school principal, had decided that postponing prom by a week would probably be better for the student body; taking into consideration her idea of most students working for the exams, and being unable to find sufficient time to scourge out a date.

_Well _that _isn't _all _untrue._

Because, quite surprisingly, the Queen of Konoha, Haruno Sakura, belong to the group catering to dateless students.

It hadn't been because of an indecent lack of proposals on the part of the males or anything. It was just that she'd turned down the myriad boys who'd proposed the idea of accompanying her to prom to her; sighting the reason of her _already _having a date to them. A blatant lie.

Walking into her bedroom, the pink-head plopped down on her bed, sardonically relishing the soft bounces of her body that accompanied it. She'd been too careless, too over-confident, too... well...

_You _love _him._

Ino's words rang in her mind. A frown marred her face; as she tried to pin-point the exact manner in which she should defined the blonde's words. Back when she'd first voiced her perspective of her being in... well, the 'L'-word thingy, with the blonde, she'd angered up, and thrown a fit; citing the absence of reason in the girl's words to be the reason.

A week had passed. And then another. That's when her ideas concerning her emotional status had begun to crumble, and everything had suddenly started to seem vague.

The exams had come up, and she'd delivered her best performance, not letting the slight botheration her mind felt get the better of her. However, that had only lasted so long; as the examinations were soon over, and she was left idle. On occasion, she'd thought of the idea of calling her blonde girlfriend up, just to have someone to talk to, someone to clarify her situation for her.

However, she still hadn't gone through with that. The Yamanaka herself had called her up on occasion, but she'd not received her calls.

She didn't even need anyone's words to understand that her situation was pathetic.

Sighing, she raised a hand to her head. Her brain ached from all the trauma it'd been forced through over the short period of time that was the past two days. A nagging feeling inside her wished her to kill _anyone _who tried to go against the fact of Murphy's law being true.

What else could _possibly _happe-

_Crack-i-wack! You have a new message from Baka. _

Her eyes shot open, and flew towards the night-stand. A glowing device rested on it; vibrating slowly. Her mind went absolutely blank; _he _had sent her a message.

In a second, the Haruno was, much to her chagrin, sitting on her bed; phone in hand. Her fingers flew over the spots on her home screen; creating the pattern that unlocked her phone. Her gaze didn't waver, as her pointing-appendage quickly pressed the 'Messages'-icon at the bottom of the screen.

_Ba-dump._

Baka.

_'You off school? If yes, then meet me at Shopanation by 10? -Naruto_'

A myriad thoughts plagued her mind, and her eyes went over the message three time too many, as she tried to dig up the best thing she could've done from the emptying mine in her head titled 'Sensibility'.

She sighed; a smile creeping to her lips.

When was the last time she was sensible anyway?

_'Meet'cha there. -Sakura'_

* * *

Sakura caught sight of a couple of boys on the other side of the curb ogling her, and heaved a sigh. It probably hadn't been a good idea to step out in skirts as short as the ones she was sporting then, but all traces of common sense had left her when she'd gone into a frenzy, thirty minutes ago, trying to pull out, dare she say, the sexiest clothes she owned from her closet.

And now there she was; wearing the clothes she'd deemed to be on the fine line between 'Smexy' and 'Meh'.

It was, if what Ino had told her was true, only natural for a girl of her 'caliber' to be ogled at then.

A weird feeling of happiness flitted across her mind at the thought of Naruto ogling her like those boys.

A strange laugh escaped her, as she neared Shopanation; the mall nearest her house, although she didn't ponder the reason why it _did_. Her eyes flew over her surroundings, searching for a shock of bright blonde hair. A mild sense of disappointment settled upon her when she realized that he hadn't yet arrived. Although, she couldn't blame him; she was the one who was thirty minutes early.

Sighing, she dug into the sling bag which rested on her shoulder and picked out her cell phone.

Her notifications-panel read '1 new message'.

Scowling, she clicked on it.

'_So, wanna check out a cool pick-up line?'_

Sakura smirked, shaking her head. The weirdness that was ever present in the messages the Baka sent her, had somehow stopped astonishing her between the moment she received his message that morning, and then. She hadn't given it much thought then, and figured it would be just in keeping with what she'd started, to not care now.

'_Sure.'_

She hit the 'send' button, and kept looking at the screen, waiting for his reply to arrive. A moment passed, and then another. She frowned; he usually replied back within a minute; never exceeding the boundary of forty seconds, as she'd gauged out. Therefore, she shook the Galaxy Note she held in her hands, trying to _make _it bring out some sort of reply, when...

"My love for you is like diarrhea," a voice whispered in her ear, making her eyes widen, "It just keeps coming out."

Turning sharply, she found herself facing a blonde haired boy. A furious blush enveloped her face, as her eyes fell on his lips, which were smiling mere inches from her face. His eyes twinkled with mirth; as if to laugh at her flustered state, and shone exclusively sapphire, emanating a feeling of cheer as it did so.

Tearing her eyes away from his face, Sakura found said blonde to be wearing a light-gray shirt; with folded cuffs, over black pants. His tanned skin popped out, and spoke of the utterly magnificent piece of male physique he possessed. Sakura felt her blush deepen, and weakly raised a hand to push the boy away. Her eyes widened in a glare.

"You s-scared me Baka!" The huskiness in her voice surprised her.

Naruto laughed.

"_Miss _me?"

The next moment, _all _the people on the pavement heard a muffled cry ring out, as a certain blue-eyed boy was sent flying into a lamp-post.

* * *

The smoothness of the Uchiha's brow creased, as he looked at the girl standing in front of him. Kairi Itogawa had received, and held onto, many of the eyes of the hotter section of Konoha's male students. And a couple of ones of the female students. But they could, in _no _way have imagined what Sasuke was witnessing then.

They were standing by the pool of the water-sports club the two of them had, oblivious to the others' similar ideas, joined recently, and... Kairi was wearing a swimsuit.

The Uchiha prodigy was shamelessly ogling her.

The red-head smirked.

"Like what you see, 'Big Boi'?"

Scowling, Sasuke turned back to her face. His knitted eyebrows sent off a feeling of disgust.

"Please don't call me that. It's creepy."

Kairi winked at him.

"Creepy's just how I roll."

* * *

Sakura found herself looking around the place, trying to catch the number of people who were there at the mall at that hour. Unfortunately though; all she caught sight of, was the disgusting number of females who were staring at the blonde guy sitting opposite her. Finding one who was staring at her, like she wanted to kill the pinkette and sit opposite the guy, Sakura stuck out her tongue.

"So, you sure you're okay with helping me shop?" Naruto asked uncertainly, scratching the back of his head.

Sakura shrugged, smiling, "Yeah, yeah! Gee, Baka, when did you start worrying about all _that_?"

Naruto laughed, dismissively waving a hand in front of her.

A few moments later, the duo found themselves between racks of cereals, wandering whilst carefully eyeing the various sorts of the same on display. Pausing on occasion, Sakura pointed out something to Naruto, and he immediately picked that up and threw it into the cart he was pushing. When questioned about the rise in bill he'd incur, he'd merely wave, and ask her not to worry about it.

Another five minutes or so, and they were standing outside the mini-mart, Naruto carrying two bags, and Sakura; one. The current topic of their conversation happened to be the thoughts of the other on the theme the committee had chosen for prom.

"I personally feel like Paris is a pretty good theme," decided Sakura, nodding to emphasize, "It feels... romantic, somehow..."

Quite involuntarily, her eyes flit to the blonde; who was staring ahead. A few minutes previously, an old lady, who'd been standing behind them in the line by the cash-counter, had commented on how cute a couple they made. Sakura had immediately thought of clarifying the woman's wrong impression, but Naruto had spoken up instead, complimenting said lady's 'Eye for romance', and thanking her.

The ordeal had left her quite flushed; more so, since she'd been incapable of doing anything, not only because of the number of people around... but also the weird sort of gush that'd invaded her mind on the idea of the two of them actually being in a relationship.

For the second time that day, Ino's voice hand rung out in her mind.

_You _love him.

She'd tried to push those thoughts away; however, they'd been unwavering. An impeccably violent mental fight had followed; at the end of which, sadly, the pinkette had found herself unable to win, and succumbing to the multitude of thoughts she was cooking up on the various... things she could do with her blonde friend, if the two of them were to take part in an actual relationship.

Quite inexplicably, she'd found the situations endearing.

"Romantic, huh?"

Sakura felt her cheeks redden as the blonde's gaze flitted to her face, forcing her to turn away.

They walked in silence for a few minutes after that, with Sakura shooting Naruto an occasional stare; only to find him staring forward, towards the mall's entrance, with a distant look on his face.

This time, she took the responsibility of breaking the ice upon herself.

"S-So, I take it y-you've got a date?"

She gulped when he turned his face towards her, his expressions carefully guarded. The sunlight fell on his eyes, as the two of them stepped out into the pavement outside, making the sapphire orbs glow. A mirthful smile took over his lips.

"Nah, I'm available," he waggled his eyebrows, "Interested?"

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, "You wish, idiot!"

Naruto laughed, shaking his head at the pinkette's expression. A few moments of comfortable silence followed, while they continued to walk towards the curb that went by Sakura's residence.

"I'm dateless t-too."

Blue eyes caught sight of a fervently blushing girl. A confused expression adorned his face.

"Really?"

Sakura nodded, gulping.

Naruto shrugged, stopping momentarily to turn towards the pinkette as they finally reached the main gate of her apartment building. A small smile graced his lips, as the blonde waved a small wave at the girl.

"Be seeing ya, Sakura-Chan."

Sakura nodded again, not saying anything.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, but quickly lowered it again, seeing the emerald-eyed girl slowly begin to turn towards the entrance. His lips bent in a half-smile.

He turned around, and shoved his right arm into his pocket, beginning to walk away, when suddenly a very strong grip landed on his left hand. Stricken by the contact, Naruto whizzed around, to find Sakura standing a couple of places away from him. Another confused expression flit through his face.

"A-about the thing you said, earlier," the pinkette gulped, her face slowly proceeding towards the point of resembling a tomato in color, and looked sideways.

The blonde raised an eyebrow.

"H-huh?"

Sakura gulped again, shooting him an angry glare, before the blue-eyed boy finally remembered his comment a couple of minutes earlier. His eyes widened at the prospect of her actually addressing the thing, and his heart skipped a couple of beats.

"Uh, y-yeah?"

A second went by, silence hanging heavily on the air around them.

Then, Sakura looked up at him, a fierce blush enveloping her face.

"I-I'm interested."

* * *

**Yeah, I'm evil. Mwahahahahahahahahahaa! And well, I've decided that this'll be the penultimate chapter in this story. Know what that means? Only ONE chapter left! It'll probably exceed 5000 words, or something. **

**LoL, anyway, its 2:40 here, and I feel like a bear awaiting hibernation. [Do bears hibernate? o.O]**

**And yeah, a couple of youtube references there. One's from 'Worst 100 Pick-Up Lines of All Time', I think was the name. AMAZING video! xD And the others from some chinese prank call thingy. - The 'Big Boi' one. xD**

**Anyway, have fun and stuff. Enjoy this fic while it lasts. I actually got a new guitar, so I'm pretty crazed right now. :D  
**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Oh, and REVIEW. PLEASE! Or I WONT, update. I've got only two days left here. If I don't feel like it _now, _you guys have got to wait about four more months for the next update. 3:D I really AM evil. xD**

**Be seein' ya.**


	13. Prom

******I know this is short, but I have no time. Perhaps I'll mend this, if you guys don't like this, four months later. :'(**

**So, here you go! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Prom**

* * *

"You look good."

Naruto's ears perked up at voice. Sapphire eyes swiftly traveled to the right, and caught hold of the sight of a black-haired guy wearing a dark colored suit. His tie was undone, and slung around his neck, softly cushioned by the crunchy white shirt he was wearing. His red eyes popped out because his garbs' colors, and made him look like a surreal being.

Well, surreal to others; to Naruto, he'd always be a bastard.

"You too, bitch."

Sasuke smirked, and moved closer to the blonde. Casting a wayward glance at the mirror, his smirk turned into an appreciative smile;. Coming to a stop beside the blonde, he watched quietly as the teen meddled with his dark blue colored suit. He'd somehow convinced the idiot to not go through with his plan of wearing an orange tie to prom; saying that the frog god would grow angry with him, when his other stratagem [That of telling the blonde that the color was too screaming] hadn't worked.

Now, with a silver tie knotted perfectly around his neck; Naruto Uzumaki, much to Sasuke's pleasure, looked quite the mean man.

"So, I'm taking out Kairi...," the Uchiha muttered, casting Naruto a shy glance. The latter merely smirked at the mirror, as if to laugh at the black-head's unusually awkward behavior. A few glances were exchanged, a couple of abuses muttered; and then, the two roommates began to laugh dementedly.

A couple of minutes later, the two of them were standing outside their apartment; with Sasuke locking their door. Naruto idly scratched his chin, and stared distantly at the expanse of wall in front of him.

"School's ending."

Sasuke finished locking their apartment up, and turned around to face the blonde. The latter's face bore a grim expression, making Sasuke consider what he'd say. Unfortunately, on that particular occasion, he didn't have much of a clue if what he'd consider right, would actually work.

Thus, shrugging his worries off, he tried something new.

He smiled.

"On the brighter side, I'm not gonna have to hear you whine about how 'Sakura-chan' doesn't heed your advances anymore."

Naruto snorted, "She only chose me because she knew you weren't available."

The Uchiha shook his head, and started to walk away, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"You'll see."

* * *

Sakura checked and rechecked herself in the mirror; frowning as she tucked a small lock that'd escaped her carefully settled bun. Her eyes feverishly went over her physique, and the garbs she'd chosen after hours of careful contemplation. A wheat-colored strap-less dress made of silk, draped her body, shining softly in the dim light of her room. A small necklace, on which hung a single raindrop-shaped crystal ball, adorned her neck, glinting occasionally, and giving off an ethereal sort of aura.

Ino had personally made her face up a couple of hours ago, after practically jumping around in joy at the thought of her accompanying the Uzumaki to school. Fretting over the tiniest of imperfections, and painstakingly correcting them, the girl had gone about carefully checking her face, and applying whatever she'd brought with her, to her face.

And now, with the blonde girl downstairs waiting for their limo to arrive, Sakura could shamelessly say that Ino'd down a wonderful work on her.

Sighing merrily as she went over to the kitchen counter, the pinkette thought excitedly about what the last night of her school days would be like. The wondrous sorts of thing she'd been told about this particular event, ever since she'd entered _junior _High, practically made her squeal in delight. Butterflies broke out in her stomach, and threatened to engulf her whole, as she thought about what everyone would say when they saw her.

What everyone would say when they saw her with _him_...

Her eyes softened.

_Naruto_.

She'd finally come to terms with a particular revelation a few days earlier, when she'd flat-out asked the blonde out to Prom. It'd been worrying, and, none too unexclusively, exhilarating at the same time. She knew that many people deemed her pretty, even her current object of thought himself had, on occasion, said so. However, it still didn't make her feel any less insecure about herself that day. Because he looked _good_. And she didn't want to turn it all down for him.

A wavering sigh escaped her, as she finally neared the door to her apartment. He'd just have to deal with it, if she wasn't up to the mark, then...

The door whooshed open.

And there he was.

Sakura's eyes conveniently widened, and her jaw simultaneously slackened, as she took in the view.

A royal blue blazer was buttoned over the wheat-ish shirt that covered his torso; complimenting his eyes effortlessly. A small stretch was present on the shirt; where it extended over smooth pectorals. A smooth, silver tie hung from his neck; disappearing into the junction of the two folds of her coat, giving out a gentlemanly feel. Pants of the same color, covered his legs; slightly hugging onto his skin, and subtly showing off his muscles; blending smoothly with the powerful build of the teen.

"B-Baka?"

Naruto winked at her.

"You look splendid, ya'know?"

The pinkette smiled, her gaze becoming gentle.

"You're one to talk."

* * *

The pinkette eyed the different couples on-board the limousine they'd rented. A boy with red canine-tattoos on his face, sat next to a beautiful blue-haired girl, nervously smiling at her whenever she cast him a glace; Ino sat next to Shikamaru, who'd, for once, straitened out his hand, and was looking like some sort of rockstar. Sasuke sat next to Itogawa, as Sakura liked to call her, whispering something to her, that, however weird it may be, made her laugh.

Then there was Lee with Tenten, and Neji with _that girl _who'd once scorned Sakura, when the whole school had fallen for the Uchiha maestro.

The Haruno smiled. In a weird manner, that didn't seem to affect her anymore.

Eyeing the blonde to her right mutter something, probably obnoxious, to Sasuke; Sakura stifled a laugh, as the other boy shot him a murderous glare.

Naruto Uzumaki.

She gulped.

_She_ had something to tell _him, _for once.

And it probably wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

Kakashi looked at the couple come up to him, and ask for two glasses of RC Cola. Smiling beneath his mask, he nodded at them, and slowly pulled out two champagne glasses from beneath the counter behind which he stood. _So much for being a reputed Parisian wine merchant_.

After filling the glasses to their half, and softly clinking their two glasses together, Kakashi handed one to each of them.

"I'll leave you two to yourselves."

And with that, he was off, scooting over to another side of the 'mini-bar'.

"So, Paris seems nice, eh?"

Naruto's voice invaded the jittery, and utterly tiring battle that waged inside his pink-haired date's mind. He saw her give him a shaky nod, and gulp; her cheeks flaring for some odd reason. Sighting her discomfort, the blonde knitted his eyebrows together, trying to gauge the cause of the same.

"Uh, are you not happy with this, Sakura-chan?"

The pinkette's eyes shot up to meet the blonde's, widening off their own accord as she realized the slight strain the voice of the blonde carried. Awkwardly gulping, she shook her head in nervousness.

"N-No," she croaked, furiously trying to rid him of his misconception.

"Oh, that's good," he smiled, vainly trying to mask the disappointment beginning to threaten the engulf him.

He was faking.

_I'm done._

_"_Follow me."

Naruto blinked at the sudden commanding tone that the pinkette had taken up. Looking up, he saw her glare determinedly at him for a second, before swiftly standing up and beginning to move away towards the back-gate.

"S-Sakura-chan, wait!"

Pushing through the maddening crowd of Konohan students, Naruto tried to gauge the pinkette's movements, as the latter moved seamlessly through the gathering. Cursing when a sudden guy came in front of him, Naruto began to push harder, and then, quite suddenly, found himself staring at an open gate.

He gulped.

_What's going to happe-_

He suddenly felt a swift tug on his tie, and, closing his eyes, felt the noise of the hall get wiped out. About to open his eyes, and find the cause of the sudden pull, Naruto felt an alien feeling invade his senses.

_What the-?_

Something warm and moist crashed against his lips.

Swiftly opening his eyes, he found a certain pink-haired girl flush against his physique, pressing herself against him, as she began to smoothly caress his mouth with hers. A soft bite on his bottom lip, and a couple of smooth sucks later, Naruto felt his knees buckle, and his mouth slowly open, to harbor the pressing muscle he felt push against his lips.

"S-Sakura-?"he whispered.

"_Shut up," _she shot back.

Pushing him against the cold wall of the alley-way, she continued pressing herself against him, roaming over his chest. Quite involuntarily, he groaned, bringing his own hands up, and starting to mold her shape with them. She gasped, moaning softly, as she felt his tongue invade the recesses of her mouth.

"_Naruto..."_

Two minutes later, they were panting; Sakura leaning heavily against him, clinging onto his shirt, as the two of them panted; gasping for sweet air. Naruto's eyes had darkened to a husky blue, pleasurably taking in the sight of the breathless pinkette against him.

However, a nagging question took him over.

"Why...?" he whispered, looking at her as she pressed her face into his chest, unwilling to look up.

A few moments of silence followed.

"You're the biggest doof I've ever seen in my life, you know that?" She whispered. Naruto felt her throat contract in a gulp.

His silence egged her to continue.

"Why're you always so carefree? So _light _about everything, dammit?" She slowly pulled her face up, and stared at his unwavering eyes, blinking cheerily, and dare he say, in accomplishment.

"I didn't realize it until a week ago," she said, slowly regaining her breath, "But, all those times you spent with me, and... told me stuff- throughout them, something had been happening to me," she gulped, collecting her resolve, "I think I-"

Naruto hugged her, and brought her face flush against his chest, silencing her.

"I love you, Sakura-chan."

She smiled against him.

"You're an _idiot, _you goof!"

A couple of minutes later, she gulped; nervousness engulfing her again.

"D-Does that mean we're _dating _now?"

The silence that followed her words seemed threateningly crushing.

Then she heard him laugh.

"Believe it."

* * *

**AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! IF THIS TURNED OUT BAD, I'VE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO, BECAUSE I'M ALREADY IN THE TERMINAL. HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THIS STORY.**

**MY NEXT ONE'S GONNA BE ON NARUTO AND SAKURA GOING TO OFFICE IN SOME BIG CITY. IT'LL BE AU, AND ALREADY MAKES ME GIDDY. IT'LL BE PUT UP IN MAY.**

**SEE YOU GUYS!**

**~THA musIc GuY**

**AND I WROTE THIS IN ONE GO, SO I DUNNO HOW THIS TURNED OUT. I'VE NO SCOPE OF KNOWING EITHER. :D SEE YA!**

**PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE REVIEW.**


End file.
